


Honestly Dishonest

by Alybalybee



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: AU, F/F, Lesbian Sex, affair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-22
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-09-26 08:36:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9876818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alybalybee/pseuds/Alybalybee
Summary: AU, no rewind, no storm.  Max has moved back to Arcadia Bay and is trying to get the courage to get in touch with Chloe again.  However, Chloe's new girlfriend might be able to help with that...but maybe she will make a big mistake getting the 'partners in crime' back together again?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic in a long time (I'm talking Willow/Tara days of old) so any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I've got a couple of other fics in mind in the Pricefield genre but posting this first one will give me an idea if it's wanted/needed or if I'm just terrible and should stop immediately. Also, things are gonna get adult up in here so hence the Mature warning.

Chapter One

Max sat anxiously in her first class at Blackwell Academy, scanning the sea of faces around her. She had arrived the day before after her parents had dropped her off with all her bags, giving her a long hug goodbye and asking her to stay in touch as much as possible. They were slightly over protective, they always had been, but Max appreciated that - she was lucky to have them.

She felt a slight pang in her chest as she thought about her family and her home. Well...in truth, it wasn't that Arcadia didn't feel like home, she had grown up here, but it had been a long five years. She wished she had kept in touch with her closest and dearest friend Chloe with whom she had spent most her childhood in Arcadia with. Moving here would have been a lot easier if she had had her partner in crime by her side.

She smiled as she thought of Chloe and their time together, and then she swallowed a large lump in her throat as all the emotions of leaving Chloe right when she needed her the most came back to her. It was going to take a lot to get Chloe to talk to her again after Max hadn't even bothered to send so much as a text message over the last five years.

"Okay everyone..." Max's thoughts were interrupted by her teacher Mr.Jefferson addressing the class "...welcome to Intro to Photography. I'm looking forward to seeing the range of talent we have in the room and I expect a high level of commitment from you all and in exchange I will bestow on you all of the knowledge I have gained during my illustrious career."

'Wow...' Max thought '...look up ‘Pretentious’ in the dictionary and I'm sure you'll find a picture of Mr.Jefferson.' Mr.Jefferson was one of the reasons Max came back to Arcadia, he was a renowned photographer and photography was Max's calling. The other reason, if she was honest with herself, was Chloe.

She had never met anyone like Chloe or been as close with anyone since she moved away. She yearned to have that connection back, which was ridiculous considering she had done nothing to keep it alive over the past five years. She didn't know how to begin building bridges with Chloe, or if she even should. Chloe may have changed completely since Max left, she might not even be in Arcadia anymore and who knows what losing her Dad did to her? Max shook her head at the thought and brought her attention back to the class.

. . . . .

As the bell rang signaling the end of class, Max picked up her bags and one of her classmates approached. There was only one word to describe this girl, absolutely beautiful, "Max right?" she asked. They had done a cringeworthy ‘Go round the room and say something interesting about yourself’ introduction earlier in class but she was surprised that the girl remembered her name.

"Yeah, hi." Max replied shyly.

"I'm Rachel." she propped herself up on the desk, "So you're new here right? I mean...to the town? I've not seen you around before."

"Actually...I used to live here about five years ago but I moved to Seattle with my parents."

Rachel's eyes widened, "Oh...Max!" recognition washing over her face.

"Ugh, yeah...Max." she replied confused.

Rachel laughed slightly, "Well, since you're new here, you should come hang out with us at this totally lit party I'm throwing tonight. Everyone from class is going, plus a few others." Rachel smirked slightly.

"Um, I'm not sure..."

"Oh come on, I promise it’ll be fun and what a better way to get to know all your new classmates?"

'I suppose I should make the effort to get to know everyone...' Max thought, '...it's either that or sit in my room all night feeling sorry for myself and debating getting in touch with Chloe.'

"Sure, why not? I mean, I'd love to come...thank you."

Rachel beamed, "Awesome, here's my number." she scribbled down her number on the back of Max's notepad. "Drop me a text later on and I'll fill you in with the details."

"Great. I'll see you then." Max smiled and collected her bags and left the class.

. . . . . .

Max walked outside the front of Blackwell Academy, proud that she had some-what made an effort to be sociable and didn't stick to her introvert ways. She sat on the grass outside and pulled out some polaroids she had taken earlier that day. She pulled out her camera and took a shot of a squirrel as it scurried past.

"Did you get it?”

The voice behind her made her jump. She turned around and saw a tall nerdy looking guy with mousy brown hair smiling at her. She had met him yesterday when she was finished moving her stuff into the halls and had gone for a wander around campus. He seemed pretty harmless and they actually had a few geeky interests in common.

"Sorry! I didn't meant to scare you." He said, then sat cross legged next to her.

"That's okay Warren, how are you doing?"

"I'm good Max, how are you? How was your classes?"

"They were okay as first days go, we had the awkward 'stand up and tell everyone about yourself' moment, I’ve got a list of books that’s going to put a huge dent in my funds but I did get invited to a party."

Warren beamed, "Rachel Amber's? Are you going?"

"Yeah I think so."

"Me too! We should go together! I mean," Warren back pedaled, "I could walk you to the party, I know where Rachel stays."

"Won't her parents mind her having a party?"

Warren laughed, "Yeah they probably would, if they were ever around to know about them. Rachel's parents are out of town a lot."

"Well that would be great Warren, and at least I wouldn't have to walk in alone."

"Great, I'll meet you outside the dorm at 8?"

"Sounds great." Max smiled at Warren as he stood up and left. Max liked Warren but she hoped he didn't have any ulterior motives for escorting her to the party. The last thing Max needed was a love interest....not that she had much experience of that, but if she threw that into the mix right now on top of everything else, life would get way too complicated.

. . . . .

Max looked at herself in the mirror, debating her fourth outfit choice. She settled on a black tee, jeans and converse. She had applied a little make up in an attempt to fit in with the other girls who would probably be judging her outfit choice the second she stepped inside the door.

Max's phone buzzed, it was Warren alerting her that he was outside. She quickly put her camera in her duffle bag and stepped out of the dorm. Warren was standing outside and grinned when he turned and saw Max, "Wow Max you look great."

Max tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, "Thanks Warren, you look good too. " Warren blushed and she hoped she hadn't given him false hope.

They started their walk to Rachel’s, “Are you excited for tonight?” Warren asked.

“Hmm mostly a bit nervous to be honest.”

“You’ll be fine Max, if anyone starts any trouble, I’ll be on it.” Warren said then kissed his non-existent muscle as he flexed which made Max giggle.

As they approached their destination, Max heard the house before she saw it, the booming music could be heard down the street and when they approached there were some people milling around outside drinking and smoking. Max gulped as she felt nerves wash over her 'What have I signed myself up for?' she thought, ‘Max - this is what you’re supposed to be doing at your age, get your ass inside!’ she was standing outside the path to the front door, her pep-talk hadn’t helped.

"You ready?" Warren asked, offering his arm for Max.

"As I'll ever be." Max smiled and put her arm through Warren's. It was nice to have someone by her side when she entered the house and was crushed amongst the throng of partygoers.

It was loud and chaotic, there were people drinking, sitting on the sofas, stairs, floor. "Do you wanna get a drink?" Warren half-shouted.

Max nodded and he lead her to the kitchen. It was slightly quieter there and people were standing in a half circle talking and leaning against the kitchen counter. Warren offered Max a beer and she shook her head.

"Not that I'm all for underage drinking but I think in certain situations some dutch courage wouldn't go a miss.” he said.

Max stood, debating internally and then reached out and took the can, "Why not?" she said and gulped down some of the beer. It tasted vile but she knew it would calm some of her nerves.

A few girls, one of which Max recognized from her photography class 'Victoria?' Max thought trying to recall the girls name

"Who invited the nerd's?" Victoria said, looking at Warren and Max in disgust."

"Get lost Victoria." Warren stated.

"Oooh careful or people might start to think there's testosterone somewhere in that dweeby boy body of yours."

"What's your problem?" Max asked, surprised at her own confidence. 'Who the hell does this biatch think she is?' she thought.

Victoria squared up to Max but was interrupted by Rachel, "Now now ladies." Rachel said, swinging her arm around Max, "I invited Max, Victoria. In fact - she's the guest of honor."

"Huh?" Max asked.

Victoria walked away mumbling something under her breath. She knew better than to go up against Rachel who was renowned as the queen of Blackwell Academy.

"There's someone I want you to meet." Rachel said. "Well, not really meet, ‘see’ I guess?"

Max looked back dumbfounded. "Wait here." Rachel said, smirking.

Max felt uneasy at how smug Rachel looked and turned to Warren.

"What was that about?" he asked.

"I have no..." Max started but spun round when she saw Rachel returning, her hand over a Blue haired girls eyes.

"Rachel what the fuck I was having a smoke, can't this wait?" the girl shouted as she was manhandled over to where Max was standing.

'Is that...?' Max thought but her thought was confirmed when Rachel took her hand away from the girls face. "Chloe?!" she exclaimed.

"Max?!" Chloe stated, her jaw almost dropping to the floor.


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max and Chloe deal with being brought together again and both contemplate their feelings on it. There is some awkward tension and a floppy haired dork interrupts. Enjoy!

Chapter Two

 

The two girls stood, slack-jawed staring at each other for a moment before Rachel shouted “Surprise!” and threw her arm around Chloe’s shoulder grinning.

“Hi Chloe…” Max said with a nervous smile and with one arm stretched across her chest, holding her right arm. This was not the reunion she had expected and she was slightly pissed with Rachel after setting them up like this, it made her instantly distrustful of this girl.

“Max…” Chloe repeated again, stunned, “Dude…” she hesitated a moment and then opened her arms “Wow…bring it in…” Chloe said as she moved and hugged Max tightly, “It’s great to see you.” she said and felt a well of emotion build up within which she instantly tried to squash down. When they moved away from the hug she continued “It’s been like forever, you just disappeared off the face of the earth Max.” Chloe’s face was a mixture of emotions but mostly Max could see she was sad and angry.

Seeing Chloe’s face, Max felt overwhelmed with guilt, “I’m so sorry Chloe. I was going to get in touch with you when I got back, I just didn’t know how to even…start.” Max offered an explanation and Chloe just nodded, not really sure what to say, think or feel.

“Well lucky you guys had me to reunite your dymanic duo!” Rachel announced, looking pleased with herself. Chloe shot her a look, she was not so pleased with Rachel’s actions.

“Rach, can we go outside and grab a smoke? Max, I’ll catch up with you in a sec, don’t move!” she said and practically dragged Rachel out into the yard.

Max stood dumbstruck for a second, not sure what had just occurred. Max wasn’t sure she would even recognize Chloe if she had walked past her in the street, she was so different now - bright blue hair, tattoos, her punk-rock attire, it was a lot to take in. Then again, Chloe was always the rebellious type and had a ‘zero fucks given’ attitude that had became more evident in her teens.

“You okay?” Warren asked, handing her another can of beer.

“Yeah, just a bit shocked, I didn’t expect to see Chloe again like that. We were friends when I was here before, best friends. I ruined it though, when I moved away, I never stayed in contact, not a text, not an email - nothing.”

“Why not?” Warren asked.

“I guess I felt bad about leaving Chloe at such a hard time in her life, and I didn’t feel like anything I said would make that any better and the longer I left it, the harder it got. I wish I could go back in time and change it but life doesn’t work that way I guess.”

“Well, she looked glad to see you again and maybe this is a chance for a fresh start?”

“Maybe. I hope so anyway.”

“I’m sure it will be.” Warren rubbed his hand up and down Max’s back. “Besides,” Warren continued, “she could probably use a friend to vent to, having Rachel Amber as a girlfriend is probably hard work.” He laughed.

“Yeah.” Max said absentmindedly and brought the can to her lips and then stopped, “Wait…what? Girlfriend?”

. . . . .

“I don’t know why you are so pissed at me?!” Rachel shouted, her arms folded and a stern look crossing her face.

“I’m not pissed at you, I just wish you had spoken to me about it first before you did this. It was hella fucking awkward Rach and it really didn’t need to be that way.”

“Well I’m so sorry for trying to do something nice for my girlfriend. What a horrible person I am trying to reunite my girlfriend with her best friend that she hasn’t stopped going on about since we met.” she said sarcastically.

Chloe took a deep breath trying not to lose her cool with Rachel. She hated it when she acted like this, “That’s not what I’m saying Rach for fuck sake. I just…this moment wasn’t about you, it wasn’t about you being an amazing girlfriend and re-uniting me with Max, it’s more complicated than that. I just feel like you were making it about you that’s all.”

“That’s all? Oh that’s fucking all? Oh so I’m just selfish and make everything about me and that’s all. Fuck you Chloe.”

Chloe stepped forward to take her girlfriends arms, “That is not what I’m saying Rachel!”

Rachel held up her arms in front of her, “Look, whatever, I came here to have fun tonight, not to argue with you. If I wanted to do that it would just be like any other night together.”

Chloe felt a pang in her chest from Rachel’s words. She knew she was right, all they did lately was argue, but hearing Rachel acknowledge it hurt like a son of a bitch. Rachel stormed back into the party and Chloe walked to the side of the building, trying to stay out of view from the other party goers so she wouldn’t be bothered. She leaned back placing one foot flat against the wall behind her and pulled out a joint from a tin in her pocket and lit it, taking a deep breath on the first draw and closing her eyes.

‘I cannot believe Max is back. I can’t believe she didn’t tell me, why would she do that? Fuck why am I even surprised? She hasn’t bothered to contact me these past five years - she is clearly done with having a fucked up friend like me dragging her down. Asshole.’ Chloe sighed, she didn’t mean the asshole comment, not really. She could never really hate Max as much as she wanted to. ’Why did she have to come back…and still look super fucking cute…no Chloe…not going there again!’

After Max had left, she had realized her feelings for Max had gone a bit beyond friendship. She didn’t have time to process it all because she was dealing with her Dad’s passing but as she got older and became more aware of her sexuality, she knew she had crushed hard on Max, and that was probably half the reason she would always have a soft spot for her no matter what Max did.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sight of Max stepping out into the yard. She wandered towards where Chloe was standing, unaware of her presence and pulled a camera out of her bag, snapping a quick picture of the unaware party-goers.

“Nice to see some things never change.” Chloe said making Max jump and spin round.

Max held her hand to her chest and took a deep breath, “Chloe, you scared me! I didn’t see you there.”

Chloe laughed a little, “Sorry Max-attack.” Chloe stepped out of the shadows and drew her eyes across the length of Max, really taking the sight of her in since they had been reunited. ‘Fuck’, she thought, ‘she looks fucking beautiful. Great, just great, of course she couldn’t transform into some hideous creature over the last five years, no she had to come back looking agonizingly gorgeous.’

“Those things will kill you you know?” Max said pointing at Chloe’s joint.

“Yeah, but what a way to go!” Chloe said and offered the joint to Max who declined.

“Some other things don’t change, you never were one for taking chances.”

Max feigned hurt, “Hey, I take chances, I’m at a party, and I had two beers!” With the joint hanging from her mouth, Chloe slow clapped and Max gave her a playful push. “You look so different Chloe, I don’t know if I would have recognized you.”

Max looked at Chloe, her blue hair splaying out from under her beanie, the leather jacket with the white skull tee underneath, her ripped jeans. Chloe looked to Max like the epitome of ‘cool’ she gave off the ultimate ‘I don’t give a fuck’ attitude and it was true, Chloe never did give a fuck, except for the people she cared for about the most. ‘Like me,’ Max thought, ‘Well she did at one point before I went and ruined it all. She would never need a dorky friend like me now, she doesn’t need friends like me in her life.’

“Well, that’s what happens when you don’t see someone for five years.” Chloe stated, it had to be discussed and now was a good a time as any.

“Chloe, I’m s…” Max started but was interrupted.

“Max don’t okay, I don’t want a bullshit apology, I just want the truth. Why didn’t you contact me Max? I thought we were best friends, I mean we were more than that right we were…a team. I had your back and you had mine?”

Max felt her eyes well up, “Chloe, I wish I could tell you why I did what I did, but I don’t know. I wanted to contact you so many times, I just didn’t know what I could say to make it better. You were so upset when I left I guess I thought if you could just forget about me and move on with your life it would be better. If I stayed away you would forget me.” Max started to cry.

“Max,” Chloe said and took Max’s hand in hers, the sight of Max in tears pulled at Chloe’s heart strings and made every angry bone in her body turn to mush, “I never forgot about you, ever. I thought about you all the time.”

“Really?” Max said, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “I never stopped thinking about you Chloe, I wish things were different and I could go back and…” Max started to ramble.

“Hey, shoulda woulda coulda right?” Chloe said, “We are here now, we’re back together, back in action. We can make this right, right?” Chloe smiled and the two girls hugged and Chloe said, “To start with, you can buy me breakfast tomorrow?”

“I would love that.” Max said, grinning from ear to ear.

Chloe’s heart melted at the sight, she knew she couldn’t stay mad at Max for long but that must be a record, five years forgotten about in five minutes. Well, not forgotten about, but at least they had glossed over it for now. Chloe was all about moving forward, life’s too short and all that bullshit.

Chloe looked beyond Max and saw Warren standing in the yard looking around, “Your dates looking for you.”

“My date? Oh, Warren. He’s not, I mean he’s just a friend, I mean maybe he wants more I don’t know, I’m not sure if I do, I don’t know, I mean…”

“He’s totally into you and you don’t feel the same way?” Chloe said, thinking of her own situation with Max when they were 13, when Chloe had these moments where she wanted to reach out and kiss Max, but never really understood why or what the feeling was. There were also moments when she would just look at Max, just look and take it all in, the sight of her made her feel ‘things’ in the pit of her stomach that she was too young to comprehend at the time. Now she knew because it was the same way she had looked at Rachel ‘same way I do look at Rachel’ she thought, correcting herself.

“Rachel seems nice.” Max said, trying to change the topic but also because she was desperate to ask Chloe about it, she had never thought that Chloe was gay, had never guessed when they were younger. Looking back now, she must have been blind to not know that there had always been an undercurrent of, she could probably call it, ‘tension’ between her and Chloe, or maybe she was just flattering herself?

When they were about 13 they had been up late at night, Chloe’s parents had gone to bed and said they could sleep in the living room as long as they turned off the TV after 10pm. Obviously, the girls had disobeyed, and went on a mission to find any adult programs, they had stumbled across a re-run of The L Word and had watched in awe as the two women on screen kissed each other passionately and teared off each others clothes.

“Woah.” Max said, that was all she could offer, her face was flushed and she felt extremely uncomfortable watching this with Chloe. She had never seen anything like this before, she knew about it obviously, most of it talked about in the school yard but watching it like this didn’t make it seem so ‘weird’ as she had first thought, “That’s…” she started.

“Awesome.” Chloe said, cutting her off and then quickly back pedaled, “I mean, it’s uh, let’s turn the TV off before my parents bust us.” she had got up and quickly turned the TV off and immediately lay in her sleeping bag silent, her back turned towards Max. They never discussed it again.

As Max thought about this moment and other similar moments, she realized it had been quite obvious that Chloe was gay.

“Rachel’s great.” Chloe said, “I’m glad she’s going to get the chance to know you. I’ve told her about you.”

“How long have you been dating?”

“Well about two years, on and off.”

Max decided not to press on the on and off part, it really wasn’t her place to pry.

“What about you?” Chloe asked, “any man-hunks on the horizon. I bet the guys in Seattle were hella into you.”

Max blushed, Chloe didn’t know that Max was still questioning her own sexuality and she slightly envied the fact that Chloe now seemed to be owning hers and was so sure of how she identified. Max had always crushed these thoughts deep down and tried to dismiss them as not finding the right ‘guy’ with whom she would want to have sex with yet and that was the only reason she was still a virgin at 18. But when Max let herself really think about it, she knew she had crushed hard on Chloe as kids, and looking at her now, seeing the beautiful woman she had become, didn’t make squashing the feeling any easier.

Max was saved by Warren interrupting and throwing his arms around Max from behind, pushing Max forward slightly into Chloe, “Max I found you!” he half yelled, he had clearly been doing some serious drinking since she last saw him.

“Sorry,” Max said, blushing as she realized the close proximity she was in with Chloe. She turned to face Warren, “Hey Warren.” she said, pulling his arms from her and holding them at his sides, “Have you been downing some shots by any chance?”

“Just s-sev-eight shots. Max,” he said, trying to whisper, “You’re so-so-pretty…” he breathed out, slurring the words together and leaning in slightly towards Max.

Chloe felt a twinge of jealousy at the sight and an over-whelming urge to protect Max from this drunken floppy haired douche bag, “Hey man,” she said, stepping between him and Max, “Why don’t we lay off the lady and get you inside for some water?” As much as she wanted to knock his teeth to the back of his throat, she knew this would probably not be the best move…not in front of Max anyway.

“I’ll get him back to the dorms.” Max said and put her arm around Warren’s waist, walking him out of the back yard and around to the front of the house, she knew he was harmless.

“Are you sure?” Chloe asked, following. She was sad to see Max go so early in the night but also glad that she could compose herself and really take in their reunion.

“Yeah I’ll be fine, I’ll text you when I get back. Wait, I need you number.”

“Oh so is that how you get a girls digits Caulfield?” Chloe asked, winking. She enjoyed the quick blush that appeared on Max’s face, she had always had a knack for making Max nervous and she loved it. They exchanged numbers and smiled at each other before Max started walking down the path with Warren who was now naming all the constellations in the sky and proclaiming that this was the most beautiful night of his life. ‘Man he is going to regret this tomorrow’ Max thought and chuckled at his ramblings.


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe and Max go on a double date and there is some tension in the air.

Chapter Three

 

Max lay on her bed staring up at the ceiling thinking about the night before. ‘I can’t believe I saw Chloe again, she looked so different, still as beautiful as she ever was, but different.’ Max scolded herself for her use of the word “beautiful”, ‘And she has a girlfriend Max, she is happily attached with a girlfriend so don’t even think about crushing on Chloe.’

Her phone buzzed and she picked it up, smiling when she saw Chloe’s name light up on the screen ‘What did I just say Max?’ Max shook her head and read the message:

Chloe: Yo Maximus! Two whales - an hour?

Max: Sure thing, see you then :)

Chloe: NO EMOJI!!

Max: :P :P :P

Max chuckled, of course Chloe would hate emojis she was way too cool for that, or she pretended to be at least, Max was sure she would still be able to see through her facade and bring out that dorky side of Chloe that matched her own.

Max spent some time getting ready, taking way too long agonizing over her outfit choices. ‘Why does it matter what you wear Max? It’s just Chloe, she’s seen you in Spongebob PJ’s, she’s seen you after you puked at Halloween from eating too much candy.’

. . . . . 

Getting off the bus, Max spotted Chloe leaning against her truck smoking and felt her stomach flip slightly ‘Nerves…just nerves because you haven’t hung out in so long.’ she told herself. Chloe was watching Max approach and was trying not think about how abso-fucking adorable she looked walking over, pushing her hair behind her ear as she approached.

They hugged and it felt less awkward than last night, but they lingered a bit too long and laughed nervously as they pulled away, “So ready to eat?” Max asked.

“Always! Mom will be psyched to see you.”

They went inside and found a booth, Joyce came over and gave Max a tight squeeze, “It is so good to see you Max, you’ve grown so much and at Blackwell, still so smart.” she gushed.

Chloe rolled her eyes and Max blushed furiously, “Hi Joyce, it is so good to see you.”

“Maybe you can keep Chloe on the straight and narrow now you’re back, although you two got into plenty adventures on your own if I recall right?” Joyce smiled.

Max laughed nervously and Chloe leaned back in the booth folding her arms, “I’m sure Chloe is doing fine without my influence.”

“So what can I get you?”

“Waffles! Extra bacon!” shouted Chloe.

“Pancakes please Joyce.”

Joyce smiled, squeezed Max’s shoulder and went to the kitchen to place their order.

“You’re still the daughter she never had so I see.” Chloe said, lightly kicking Max under the table.

“Hey! It’s not my fault I’m so unforgettable.” Max jested.

“That’s true.” Chloe said, but she didn’t laugh, she just smiled at Max and her eyes lingered over Max’s eyes until Max looked down at the table, feeling the embarrassment wash over her, “Anyway,” Chloe said, “I don’t know what she means by ‘straight and narrow’ I’m like hella adult, no bad choices here.”

Max laughed, “Didn’t I see you smoking a joint last night?”

“Yeah but that’s like, medication…which is what adults take when they need it right? Anyway, I definitely needed it after my fight with Rach.” Chloe sighed and fiddled with the cutlery on the table.

“Are you guys okay?” Max asked, “I didn’t know you were fighting.”

“We’re not really ‘fighting’ I just was kinda pissed that she brought us together like that, like in that way. It would have been nice to be given a heads up. Not that I’m not glad to see you.” Chloe insisted.

“I’m glad to see you too, but yeah it wasn’t how I had imagined it anyway.”

“Oh been imagining me have you? Casual daydreams?” Chloe winked.

“Shut up!” Max said laughing, “You know what I mean. Anyway, I guess I should thank her anyway for doing it, because now we’re here.”

“Well, she’s actually going to join us in a bit, if you don’t mind? I didn’t ask but I told her I was coming and she said she wants to meet you. You’ll like her, I think you two would really hit it off.”

Max didn’t feel so sure, she was sure that Rachel would be able to tell straight away that Max didn’t look at Chloe as purely ‘a friend’ that deep down inside Max there was a part of her who would love to cross that line with Chloe. Plus Rachel seemed really popular and she was drop dead gorgeous, there wasn’t much they had in common - other than Chloe.

Joyce came over with food and they started eating. “Speak of the devil.” Chloe said as she saw Rachel approach.

“Hey babe.” Rachel said and gave Chloe a quick peck. It was only a peck but it was enough to provide Max with a twinge of jealousy. ‘Damn,’ Max thought, ‘Guess that not crushing on Chloe decision I made this morning is really working out for me.’

Rachel sat in the booth next to Chloe, “Hey Max, good to see you again. Ooh bacon, I am so rough, I need this.” she said and started eating off of Chloe’s plate.

“Hey Rachel, it’s nice to see you again too. How was the rest of your night?” Max was stunned that Chloe was letting Rachel eat her food, she NEVER shared her food, they had had many toy fights over Max stealing the last fry from Chloe’s plate when they were kids, ‘But I guess it’s different when you’re in love…which they are Max, in love.’ she thought, she was sure if she kept telling herself these things over and over eventually any crush-like feelings for Chloe would disappear.

“Oh man what a night, I drank way too much. I saw you walking Warren home? Did anything happen?” she said grinning, desperate for the gossip. Chloe was intrigued too but for her own complicated reasons, ‘I swear to god if he made the moves on her again I will ram my fist so far up his…’

Chloe’s thoughts were interrupted when Max emphatically shook her head, “No no no, nothing happened. I walked him back to the dorms, he had sobered up a bit when we got there and luckily we didn’t get busted.”

Chloe felt relieved and Rachel continued, “So what’s happening between you guys? He is so into you, you can totally tell.”

“I don’t know, he’s nice, he txt me this morning asking if I wanted to go bowling but…”

“Oh we should all go! Double date!” Rachel said clapping her hands together.

“Ummm…” Chloe said, her eyes wide, she did not want to be stuck in a room while Max and Warren flirted and possibly played some tonsil tennis.

“Oh it will be great, we can all get to know each other better, I’ll text him right now.”

“Ummm Rachel, I’m not sure…” Max started.

“Okay sent.” Rachel said, leaving Max stunned at her speed, “I said 7, I’ll pick you guys up from the dorm. Oh this is going to be so much fun!”

. . . . .

“This isn’t going to be any fun.” Chloe said, “Why don’t we just go have some beers and hang out in my room or something?”

Chloe and Rachel were sitting in the car waiting for Warren and Max, Rachel had the visor down and was re-applying her lipstick, “We do that all the time Chloe, I want to actually go out, hang out with other people, it’s called socializing.”

Chloe folded her arms and leaned her head against the window.

“I thought you would want to spend time with Max?” Rachel asked.

“It’s not that, it’s just this Warren dude, I don’t like him.”

“Sure you’re not jealous?” Rachel asked, not looking away from the mirror in the visor whilst she checked her appearance.

Chloe looked at her open-mouthed, “Fuck no!” she protested, a bit too much, she knew Rachel would see right through her.

“It’s fine Chloe, I’m not stupid, the way you talked about her when we first met, you were definitely crushing on her when you were a kid.”

Chloe looked away and Rachel pulled her chin towards her, “But I’m your number one girl now right?” she asked and Chloe nodded as Rachel kissed her deeply, pushing her tongue into Chloe’s mouth and curing her fingers around the back of Chloe’s head.

They were interrupted by a small knock on the window. They broke apart and saw Warren standing there waving, Max was standing slightly behind looking the other way. ‘Great,’ she thought, ‘what a fantastic time for me to walk over, I can add Chloe making out with Rachel to my top ten list of “Things I Never Want to see Again”…thats going right up there with 'Twilight’

Chloe opened the door and got out, pulling the seat forward to let Warren and Max climb in the back, she gave Max a hug and when they pulled away Max said, “Uh you have something on your…” she pointed to her lips.

“Oh,” Chloe said and quickly wiped the lipstick away.

. . . . .

“Fucking strike!” Chloe shouted and punched her fist in the air.

“And this is from the girl who said we wouldn’t have any fun.” Rachel whispered in her ear.

Max felt that jealousy rearing it’s ugly head when she saw Rachel so close to Chloe whispering. This night had sucked so far, not just because the first sight she had been greeted with was Rachel giving Chloe mouth to mouth but also because of Rachel’s incessant need to be constantly touching Chloe, or kissing Chloe or anything to do with Chloe. Max didn’t blame her, Chloe was really adorable when she walked over to play her shot, so aloof and yet so excited when she knocked down the pins. It had taken all of Max’s strength not to stare at Chloe’s ass when she watched her line up the shot.

“You’re up Max.” Warren said, and touched her arm. Warren was always looking for excuses to touch Max and she was aware of it. She didn’t want to lead him on but it was nice to be getting some attention as selfish as that was, he continued “I’m going to the bathroom, take my shot if I’m not back.”

Max walked over and picked out a ball. Chloe laughed as she picked one up that was way too heavy and dragged it to her lane. ‘She’s so fucking cute, and that floppy haired nut sack isn’t good enough for her.’ Chloe thought. She could feel Rachel staring at her face, “What?” she asked.

“Would just be nice if you would pay me some attention.” Rachel said.

“We’re here with Max and Warren, we should ease up with the PDA’s.”

“You don’t usually complain when I’m all over you.” she said and started kissing Chloe’s neck.

“Rach, come on.” Chloe said and pushed her away slightly.

“Whatever, I’m bored.” she said and stood up, grabbing her jacket.

“What are you doing?” Chloe said.

“Chill, I’m going for a smoke, you’re right - this fucking blows.” she said and stormed off.

Max walked over, pleased with herself that she had knocked down four pins, and then she saw Chloe’s dejected face “Where’s Rachel going?”

“For a smoke,” Chloe said, “Dorkus is up. Where is he?”

“Bathroom, he said I could take his shot but I suck, I don’t want to ruin his score.”

“You just need a better technique, come on I’ll show you.”

Chloe walked over to the balls, “Now the first step is picking a ball you can actually lift.”

“Oh I didn’t realize you were a bowling expert.” Max said chuckling.

“With these talented hands, I’m an expert at anything.” she said winking, holding up her hands and wriggling her fingers.

Max blushed as she tried not to think about Chloe’s talented hands ‘For the love of dog Max, get a grip’ she thought.

Chloe noticed the blush and was pleased with herself, she loved making Max squirm. She picked a ball for Max and handed it to her and stood behind her in the lane, holding the back of Max’s wrist. It was enough to make Chloe’s head spin, she could smell Max’s hair, feel Max’s soft skin and was pressed up against Max’s back and could feel butterflies in her stomach ‘What the fuck is this?’ she thought.

“S-so,” she stammered, “You gotta bend into it a little not just hella throw it down the alley like you’ve been doing.” Chloe moved Max’s arm and put her hand on her hip to swing her body round slightly. Max threw the ball and managed to knock down 8 pins on her first shot.

“Yes!” she said and jumped up and down and hugged Chloe.

“Have I missed my shot?” Warren said from behind them.

“Oh no, just the first set.” Max said and reluctantly moved away from Chloe. She didn’t know how she had managed any hand-eye coordination when she felt Chloe pressed up against her back.

Chloe sat down on the booth and when Rachel came back over she took Chloe’s arm and put it round her shoulders, “Sorry for being a jerk.” she said and kissed Chloe on the cheek.

“I’m used to it.” Chloe joked. If anyone should be feeling like a jerk, it was Chloe ‘Why is Max making me feel like this? Fuck, it was just a stupid crush before but this is…intense, I need to get myself together and concentrate on Rach’ Chloe leaned over and kissed Rachel but it felt…empty, ‘Fuck’ she thought, ‘I am so fucked.’


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe and Max have a movie night where nothing could possibly happen because there is clearly no sexual tension at all between these 'best buds' *cough cough* yeah right.

Chapter Four

 

Chloe awoke to the feeling of Rachel kissing her neck, she smiled to herself enjoying the feeling and then her eyes snapped open as she realized she had been picturing a certain freckled brunette and not the girl in her arms. She pulled away slightly and looked down at Rachel who was smiling, “Morning,” she said and kissed Chloe and climbed on top of her.

Chloe knew what Rachel wanted, but her head was all over the place and now was not the time, “Rach, not right…”

Rachel sighed exasperated and rolled off Chloe, “Not right now right? Just like last night? What is going on?” 

“Nothing, fuck I’m just not in the mood.”

“But you’re always in the mood, or you used to be.” 

“I’ve just got a lot on my mind.” Chloe looked down at Rachel and noticed her eyes were sad and filled with worry and she felt awful. ‘I’m such an asshole, Rachel has always been there for me, I love Rachel, what am I doing why would I throw that away? Sure our relationship isn’t perfect, but whose is?’ Chloe moved over to Rachel and kissed her tenderly, “I’ll make it up to you, I promise. Tonight?”

“Can’t tonight.” Rachel said, turning her head. “Got plans.”

Chloe looked confused and was a little hurt at Rachel’s blunt tone, “With who?”

“Friends.” Rachel pushed Chloe off and picked up her clothes and started getting dressed, “I’ve gotta go and pick up some stuff from Frank.” 

Chloe knew what ‘stuff’ Rachel was referring to. She knew she wouldn’t be invited to this hang out with Rachel and her friends and she was glad actually to have some space. 

“Okay,” Chloe rolled over to the side of the bed and the pulled half of a joint out of the ashtray.

“So you’re just gonna sit there and bake and let me go.” 

“Let you go? Rach if you’ve got plans you’ve got plans, I don’t know what you want me to do.” 

“I want you to give a fuck Chloe, god!” she said and stormed out of the room. Chloe waited until she heard the front door slam, thankful that Joyce and step-douche wasn’t home to hear their altercation. 

Chloe lay back on the bed smoking with one hand and the other resting behind her head. ‘Well this is a fucking situation you’ve got yourself into Price. You fucking love Rachel what are you doing?’ When Chloe had first met Rachel, she was infatuated, utterly and completely devoted to this beautiful angel who had walked into her life and saved her from the pit of loneliness that had been created inside her from losing her Dad and then losing Max. At one point in time they were inseparable, but over the last few months they had drifted further apart.

Chloe was bored of the dramas, the constant mind games that Rachel seemed to play, expecting Chloe to know that when she said one thing she actually meant the exact opposite. It was too much hard work sometimes and Chloe’s feelings for Rachel had changed in the process, the feeling of being madly in love had dissipated until she was no longer ‘in love’ with Rachel although she did still love and care about her deeply. She was sure that Rachel felt the same as she was taking time more and more to go off and hang with her ‘friends’ rather than spend time with Chloe. It used to drive Chloe mad when she would go off and not tell her where she was going, but she found herself caring less about it as time went on.

If Chloe hadn’t been sure that things with Rachel were slowly but surely crashing and burning, having Max walk into her life and feeling those butterflies that she hadn’t felt in a long time had surely put the final nail in the coffin. ‘I need to end things with Rachel’ Chloe thought, but the thought still felt like a knife twisting in her gut, Chloe didn’t like losing people from her life, and losing Rachel would hurt like a son of a bitch. 

‘What you’re doing isn’t fair, crushing on Max and distancing yourself from Rachel’ she thought. ‘But fuck, crushing on Max, where is that going to go? So you end things with Rachel and crush on Max and then nothing happens with Max because guess what, she’s straight and then she will probably leave after school anyway and you’ll never hear from her again just like last fucking time.’ Chloe knew she couldn’t end things yet with Rachel, she wasn’t ready. 

Chloe heard her phone buzz, she ignored it thinking it was a message but it continued. She picked it up half expecting to see Rachel calling her for round two but it was Max, “Hey Maximum effort, how’s tricks?”

“Maximum effort?” 

“I don’t know, I tried to think of something but it’s morning and that’s all I got.” Chloe delighted in the sound of Max’s laugh on the other end of the phone. She wished she could record that and play it whenever she felt shitty.

“I’ll take it. So I was just calling to say thanks for last night, Warren and I had a great time at the bowling.”

“Oh Warren and I now is it?” Chloe half joked but hoped Max wasn’t about to confess she was madly in love with that nerd.

“Chloe, stop! You know what I meant.”

“So what rock and roll plans have you got for your Saturday night? I mean it’s hard to top bowling I know but I’m sure you will find something equally kick-ass, like bingo.”

“Ha ha very funny. Just studying tonight, I’ve got so much to catch up on.”

“Boo you suck.”

“I do not!”

“Do! Dude, it’s Saturday night, you’re not sitting in and studying that’s hella lame…even for you.” 

“Fuck you Chloe.” Max said laughing.

‘Don’t need to ask me twice’ Chloe thought. “Well I don’t have any plans tonight, wanna do something?”

“I dunno…I’m pretty broke to be honest.” 

“No problem, broke is my middle name.”

“I think you’ll find it’s Elizabeth.”

“And I think you’ll find that if you tell anyone that you’ll wake up dead.”

“Wake up dead?”

“You should come over and we can watch movies or something, you haven’t seen my humble abode in years.” Chloe sat up and looked round the mess in her room ‘Fuck this means I’ll have to clean’

“I guess…if you’re sure?”

“It’s a plan! 8? Be there or be…well you know, you.” Chloe teased.

“See you at 8 Chloe. You better have Bladerunner.”

“Does a bear fuck in the woods?”

Max laughed and said her goodbyes. Chloe hung up the phone and started picking empty bottles off the floor, trying to make her room look slightly presentable. ‘What are you doing Price? Oh yeah great idea invite Max over, the one you’re totally crushing on while your girlfriend is out with her friends. Yeah this can’t go wrong at all.’ 

“It’s just Max.” she said out loud, “Max has been over for movie night a million times.” ‘So why am I wishing it was 8 already?’

. . . . . 

Chloe was lying on her bed trying not to look at the clock, she had been clock watching since 6.30 and it was getting ridiculous now. She had tried to distract herself by getting high and chilling out to some music, but it wasn’t working. She had heard nothing from Rachel and she hadn’t made an effort to message her either. She would deal with Rachel tomorrow, she just wanted to hang out and have fun with Max like they did when they were kids. 

She heard a knock on the door and bolted out of the room and down the stairs nearly knocking over David as he was on his way down, “Christ Chloe look where you’re going!” 

“Sorry Step-D.” 

David shook his head and made his way to the living room. Chloe opened the door and her face burst with a smile when she saw Max standing there with two bags of popcorn, a bag of chips and a bottle of soda weighing her arms down. “Help!” Max said, her arms full and her face peeking from behind the bags.

Chloe laughed and took some of the bags from her, “Have you never heard of a carrier bag?”

“Well, I thought I could carry it, turns out, not so much.”

Chloe walked up the stairs and Max followed, tearing her eyes away from Chloe’s jean cladded ass as she made her way up the stairs ‘Now is not the time for those thoughts Max, how many times do you have to tell yourself?’

“Earth to Max?” Chloe said, she was standing outside her room with her door swung open.

“Sorry!” Max said and walked in, she didn’t know how long she had been standing at the top of the stairs with her eyes burning a hole in the floor. 

Max took in Chloe’s room, it was so different to when they were kids, there were posters of half naked women plastered on the walls along with some of bands she hadn’t heard of and some hand scrawled graffiti, “Wow, this looks so different to when I last saw it.” 

“I know,” Chloe said, “Posters of puppies and boybands just wasn’t cutting it anymore.” she joked.

“Puppies are still cute though.” Max said and sat on the bed.

‘You’re hella-cute’ Chloe thought and rolled the TV out to the edge of the bed. Max scooted back on the bed and leaned against the wall, Chloe joined her and started the DVD, grabbing some snacks.

“Thanks for inviting me over.” Max said, “I thought you would have plans with Rachel?”

“Nah,” Chloe said, “She’s having alone time tonight, I think we both need it.” 

Max hated herself for feeling secretly happy about this, “Is everything okay with you guys?” she said and stuffed some popcorn into her mouth.

“I don’t know, it’s hard you know, when you’ve been with someone so long, we are both still changing but we have to kinda keep us the same. Does that make sense?” 

“Totally. Although I wouldn’t really know about the relationship stuff, I’m not too experienced with that yet.” Max admitted shyly. 

“Oh come on, seriously, look at you. You must have had guys falling at your feet when you were in Seattle. Although, knowing you, you were probably so oblivious that you just apologized and stepped over them.” 

Max pushed Chloe playfully, “Rude! I went on dates but I never really wanted anything more after that. I guess I just haven’t found the right…person.” 

Chloe noticed the pause, “Person? You mean guy right?”

“Guy…” Max said and bit her lip, “Or you know not-guy.”

Chloe gaped, “Not guy? You’re gay?!”

“No!” Max said, “Well not entirely, I mean, I don’t think so.”

“Ah so you’re a greedy-bisexual.” Chloe joked but noticed that Max looked hurt, “Hey I’m kidding. Rachel’s bi, each to their own right.” Chloe couldn’t take all this in, Max was bi, fuck this made things so much more…dangerous.

“Are you bi?”

“Hell no.” Chloe said, “I mean I tried guys, wasn’t for me, I am definitely so gay I’m practically shitting rainbows.”

Max laughed, “You’ve always had such a delicate way with words Chloe. I don’t know what I am to be honest, I mean I’ve never…anything with a girl, and just some stuff with a guy and…”

“Hold up Dre.” Chloe said and Max looked confused, “Are you saying, you’re still a virgin?”

Max beamed bright red and wanted to take back everything she had just said, she was mortified, “Yeah.” she admitted. ‘Well that’s it now, you’re officially too much of a loser to hang out with Chloe.’

“Hey, no, I didn’t mean for you to feel bad about it Max.” Chloe said, rubbing her hand up and down the girls back, “I mean, it’s good, it’s what you deserve, to wait for someone who is absolutely amazing and blows your mind. Not in the back of a dirty van after one too many beers like me.” 

Max smiled and enjoyed feeling Chloe running her hand up and down her back, probably a little too much, “You don’t think I’m a loser?”

“Max I have never thought that about you. You are kind, funny, intelligent…a dork yes but a loser no.” 

Max laughed, “Thanks Chloe.”

Both girls turned their attention back to the screen. Chloe reluctantly moved her hand away and placed it straight into the bag of popcorn. ‘This is bad,’ she thought, ‘Max is into girls too, and I’m a girl, and her best friend, and I have Rachel, fuck…I want to kiss her so fucking badly.’ 

‘I want her to kiss me so much,’ Max thought, ‘You’re a terrible friend Max.’

Both friends were lost in their respective thoughts as the movie played on screen. Max felt her eyes get heavy and did her best to stay awake, she felt herself sliding down the wall and rested her head on Chloe’s shoulder, getting lost in the smell of Chloe. It felt so good to be back with her again. 

Chloe looked down at the top of Max’s head and felt her breathing go shallow, she knew the girl had drifted off to sleep as she always did when they had movie night as kids. ‘Some things never change,’ she thought and looked at the girl sleeping on her shoulder, ‘but then other things definitely fucking do.’ and sighed as she leaned down and placed a light kiss on the top of Max’s head.

. . . . . 

Max woke up as she felt Chloe stirring and moving her away from her shoulder, “What time is it?” she asked groggily.

“Just after eleven.”

“Fuck, it’s gonna be like midnight when I get back to the dorm.” Max sat up rubbing her eyes, “I’m gonna get so busted.”

“Well,” Chloe started, “you could just crash here?” Chloe knew she shouldn’t offer Max to stay over, that was not the sensible thing to do, but she didn’t want the girl to get into trouble. 

“Are you sure?” Max said, not sure how well she would sleep with Chloe in such close proximity but grateful that she wouldn’t have to face the possible wrath of Blackwell dorm security.

“Yeah, it’s not like you’ve not crashed before.” Chloe said, and pulled out an old t-shirt and some shorts from her drawer, “Here you can wear these.” 

“Okay, thanks Chlo.” 

Max walked over to the other side of the room to change and Chloe respectfully turned away and put on some boxers and a vest top. When she sat back down on the edge of the bed, she realized she could see the reflection of Max changing in the mirror on her desk. She knew she should look away but her breath caught in her throat when she saw Max’s bare back. It was dotted in freckles over her shoulders and she stared as Max lifted her arms over her head to put on the t-shirt. She looked away from the mirror guiltily and lay back on the bed. 

Max shut off the light and climbed in next to her, facing Chloe. In the dim moon-light she could see Chloe staring up at the ceiling, and her eyes took the sight of Chloe in. ‘She is so beautiful, I could stare at her for hours.’ Max thought. 

Chloe turned on her side to face Max and smiled, “Thanks for tonight Max, it’s been really great having you back.”

“No thank you for inviting me, it was much better than studying.”

“Well obviously, who would pass up on this hella—awesome company?”

Max smiled and closed her eyes. She couldn’t keep looking at Chloe, she didn’t trust herself. Chloe on the other hand, was staring intently at Max’s face ‘How did she get this gorgeous? How is that even possible? And she has no idea…and that makes her even more beautiful, inside and out.’

Chloe was mirroring Max’s positing in the bed - she had one hand under her pillow, and the other hand was clamped tightly at her side, her whole being was willing her to move that hand forward and take Max’s hand. She moved her arm forward, slowly until the back of her hand touched Max’s every so slightly.

Max kept her eyes closed but could feel Chloe’s hand touching the back of hers and it made her heart rate quicken ‘Did she mean that?’ she thought and then felt Chloe’s index finger start to circle the back of Max’s hand, eventually prying the hand open and entwining her fingers with Max. ‘Okay, she definitely meant that.’ Max thought but still couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes. She felt light headed, this was too much, her stomach flipped somersaults, her heart pounded in her chest and she could feel her breath had quickened. She could hear Chloe’s breathing had quickened too and she felt a mixture of nerves and excitement.

Chloe could feel Max’s internal struggle, could see it in the soft light on her face. She knew she should stop, but she also knew she wasn’t going to. She leaned forward in the bed, close to Max until her nose was touching Max’s. She closed her eyes and brushed her lips lightly against Max, not quite kissing but just touching, testing the waters.

Max thought she might implode when she felt Chloe’s lips brush hers. Her grip on Chloe’s hand tightened and she pressed her lips firmer against Chloe’s and tiled her chin up. Chloe kissed back, slightly harder and longer, her head was spinning, this felt so amazing. She removed her hand from Max’s grasp and ran her thumb across Max’s jawline and deepend the kiss, opening her mouth and lightly pressing the tip of her tongue into Max’s mouth.

Max moaned slightly as she felt Chloe’s tongue and her hand moved to Chloe’s hip and pulled her closer. Chloe felt herself get instantly wet at the sound of Max’s moan, she rolled Max over and moved on top of her, kissing feverishly, never wanting the moment to end and to snap back to reality.

Max thought that Chloe must be able feel her heart beating against her chest, it was hammering inside her, everything she was feeling felt at once like too much and not enough - she wanted more of Chloe, she wanted Chloe everywhere on her body. She ran her hands up Chloe’s back and put her hands on the back of Chloe’s head her fingers tugging slightly on her hair. 

Chloe slid her thigh in between Max’s legs and started rocking slightly, she could feel how wet Max was against her leg and it made her want to touch her so badly. Things were going too far, too fast, she needed to stop. She had to stop. 

As if Max could read her mind she pulled away and placed her hands on Chloe’s shoulders, “Chlo, we c-can’t do this.” she said, her breath hitching as she willed the words out of her mouth that her heart had desperately tried to stop.

Chloe tried to regain her breath and buried her head in the pillow next to Max’s head, “I know…Fuck Max.” she said rolling off and putting her hands over her face, “I mean you’re Max, you’re my best friend, why am I feeling this way?” 

“I know.” Max said and stayed staring up at the ceiling, “Chloe I know exactly what you’re feeling.” 

“You do?” Chloe pulled her hands away and looked at Max, “I mean, you feel it too?”

Max turned and looked at Chloe, “Yes, of course I do. But…”

“No ‘but’, please! I know what you’re going to say…”

“Rachel.” Max said.

“I’m such a fucking asshole.” Chloe said.

“No, I’m the asshole. I can’t believe I would do this.”

“Max, it’s not your fault okay, I came on to you, I’m the one in a relationship.” 

“Do you want me to go?” 

“Never.” Chloe said and held Max’s hand. Max didn’t resist, it wasn’t the heated touch like before, it was more comforting. “Look, there’s a lot of shit going on with me and Rachel, I shouldn’t have done that…but I don’t regret it.”

“No?”

“No. I just, I need to speak to Rachel okay? Can we just like, put a pin in this?”

Max laughed a little, “Yeah we can do that.”

Chloe smiled, and pushed Max’s hair behind her ear, “You know you’re a quite a good kisser, for a virgin.” she jibed.

“Fuck you Chloe.” Max said and playfully hit Chloe’s arm.

“Kinda nearly did.” Chloe joked and laughed as Max rolled away from her, covering her face in embarrassment.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe goes to tell Max that they should probably stay away from each other...this leads to them becoming closer than either had thought possible. Warning - things are about to get adult up in here.

Chapter Five

 

Chloe was awoken by the sound of Max moving around her room. She squinted with one eye and could see Max picking up her belongings and throwing her bag over her shoulder, she sat up, rubbing her eyes, “Morning.” she said groggily.

Max was startled and spun round, Chloe could tell she was anxious about what had happened the night before, “Morning,” she said, “I didn’t want to wake you, I’ve gotta get to class.” she made her way to the door.

“Wait!” Chloe said and she stopped, her hand resting on the door handle, “Max, can you get your ass over here please so we can talk?”

Max turned, her eyes planted on the ground and sat on the edge of the bed, her back facing Chloe.

Chloe sat up and put her hand on her shoulder, “Hey,” she started, “Don’t do this, don’t go on a one way guilt trip to misery town.”

“I can’t help it.” Max said, “I shouldn’t have done that, not when you’re in a relationship.”

“To be honest Max, I’m in a relation-shit, I have been for a while. I know it’s not cool that I did that, but…I like you Max.”

Max finally turned and looked at Chloe, “I like you too.” she said, still not able to look into the girls eyes.

“I’m going to speak to Rachel today, I’m mean speak as in…the talk.”

“Chloe,” Max started, taking Chloe’s hand, “I don’t want you to just be doing this for me.”

“No Max, you’ve just…opened my eyes.”

Both girls sat looking at each other, desperate to close the gap between them. ‘No,” Max thought, ‘Not until she’s finished it with Rachel, it’s not fair.’ Max stood and gave Chloe a quick peck on the cheek and left.

Chloe went to look for her phone, she had a missed call and a text from Rachel. Her stomach sank slightly as the guilt settled in from last night, but she shook it off and read.

Rachel - I tried to call you but guess you don’t want to speak to me just now. I’m going away for a few days, I need some space to think. I love you.

Chloe re-read the message a few times, trying to feel some emotion from the ‘I love you’ like she used to feel when Rachel said that to her, but it felt empty, meaningless. She had no doubt that Rachel loved her, just not in the same way anymore and vice versa. She dialed Rachel’s number and threw the phone on the bed annoyed when it went straight to voicemail.

‘This is just fucking like her, making a drama out of everything. You need to think Rach? Well guess what? I have and I need to talk.’ Chloe typed a quick message.

Chloe - Call me, we need to talk.

She knew she wouldn’t hear back from Rachel, this wasn’t the first time she had done a disappearing act when things got rough. Usually Chloe would spend the whole time checking her usual haunts, desperate and cut up about the fact that she had bailed on her, but this time was different. This time she wanted to see her so that she didn’t have to see her anymore. That thought hurt, she would miss Rachel, she had been a big part of her life for a long time now.

Was she stupid to be throwing this all away? They had never been easy or simple, when they had first started hooking up, Rachel was hooking up with other people at the same time and it drove Chloe crazy to the point that she gave her an ultimatum - all or nothing. Rachel had chosen her and things were fantastic…for a few months, then it was continuously a huge bust up with a passionate make-up and the more it happened the more Chloe grew numb to it.

With Max, everything felt really easy, she knew how she felt about Max and Max had told her that her feelings were reciprocated, no games no head-fucks…just the small fact that Chloe was still in a relationship. ‘Hmm not the best start to things.’ Chloe thought.

‘Fuck this, I need to find her.’ Chloe went for a quick shower then got changed and started scoping out Rachel’s usual haunts.

. . . . .

Max was sitting in her room, trying to focus on the words on the page in front of her but her mind kept drifting to thoughts of last night and what had happened with Chloe. Chloe’s hand in hers…Chloe kissing her…Chloe on top of her with her thigh between her legs…

Max felt herself getting hot and turned on and scolded herself ‘Not now Max, study!’

Another two sentences and her mind was right back to images of Chloe, the taste of Chloe’s mouth, the feel of her tongue against Max’s.

“Ugh!!” she shouted out loud and lay back on the bed, throwing her book to the floor.

Max had never felt like this before and it was crazy those feelings were for her best friend, the girl she had grown up with and knew inside and out. How did this happen? How did things change so much, or had it always been there in some way, bubbling under the surface? If Max had stayed when they were moving further into her teens, would she have been more aware of it? Or would she have been on the sidelines while Chloe gushed over Rachel?

‘What if she doesn’t leave Rachel? What if I have to see them together all the time and just pretend that I’m fine with it?’ Max felt a lump in her throat at those thoughts and then shook her head, ‘No, she told you she likes you, she has feelings for you, dog sake she kissed you.’ Chloe was many things, but never a bullshitter.

Max heard a soft knock at the door and got up to answer. She opened and saw Chloe standing there, leaning against the doorway looking sheepish.

“Hey.” Max said, her breath taken away by the sight of her. ‘It’s like every time I see her again, I forgot how beautiful she was.’

“Sorry to bust in on you like this, you’re probably busy, I should…” Chloe started to walk away.

“No!” Max half shouted.

Chloe grinned, “Well okay since you’re desperate for me to stay.” she said and winked at Max, making her way into Max’s room, “I know me being here with you probably isn’t the best idea, but I’ve been trying all fucking day to find Rachel and I ended up here.”

“Rachel’s missing?” Max asked, worry across her face.

“No,” Chloe reassured, “Not really, she’s taken off.” she sat on Max’s bed, “She does this sometimes, usually when things aren’t going her way, she will disappear and then come back and deal with it later and hope that I’ll be too worried to hold a grudge, it’s textbook Rachel Amber.”

Max sat next to Chloe, “That sounds like a lot of hard work.” Max said then scolded herself for speaking negatively about their relationship when she knew nothing about the ins and outs, “I mean I hope she’s okay anyway.”

“You don’t have to be ‘Saint.Maximus’ you know, she is hard work. It also means I haven’t been able to you know, talk to her.”

Max nodded, she understood what Chloe meant, “So what do you want to do?”

Chloe’s mind raced with all the things she wanted to do right now. She wanted to kiss Max and throw her down on the bed. She wanted to trace over every inch of her body with her tongue. She wanted to hear what Max sounded like, see the look on her face when she brought her to orgasm, over and over again.

“Chloe?” Max asked when she didn’t reply.

Chloe’s face went a little red and she stood up and faced the window, not being able to see Max would make saying this a lot easier, “We should probably stay away from each other.”

Max’s heart sank and she felt like she was going to throw up, the thought of not talking to Chloe or seeing her killed her. She knew this was ridiculous in a way since it’s what she had done effectively over the last five years but things were very different now. Every inch of her being willed her towards Chloe, her body felt like it was on fire when she was next to her, every nerve on edge longing for Chloe’s touch.

Chloe turned and saw Max’s face and could see the anguish in her eyes, she rushed over taking Max’s hand, “Hey just until I can speak to Rachel okay? I don’t want this to start out like some dirty little secret, you deserve more than that Max, fuck you deserve more than fucking me for sure.”

“Don’t say that!” Max said, she hated when Chloe would put herself down like that.

“I mean, at the least, you deserve to be taken on a date right?” Chloe asked and looked into Max’s eyes slightly worried at the response she would get.

“That would be nice.” Max said smiling.

“I’ll even pay and everything…you dig happy meals right?”

Max laughed and it was the most amazing sound in the world to Chloe, it made her feel like no matter what was going on in this shitty ass world, Max existed in it, and that was enough for Chloe.

Chloe got up to leave, if she didn’t leave now she would end up going back on everything she just told Max and pouncing on her right then and there, “So I’ll call you in a couple of days when I can sort everything out okay?”

“Okay.” Max said, the reality setting in again that she wouldn’t be able to speak to Chloe for a while, it hurt, she hated the idea.

Chloe hated seeing Max looking so upset, she went over and kissed her on the cheek, “It’s only because you’re hella hot Max, and I don’t trust myself with you.”

Max blushed, “The feelings mutual.” she said and looked into Chloe’s eyes. They stayed, starting intensely at each other for a while and their breathing became ragged.

“Okay I really need to fucking go.” Chloe said and Max laughed a little, “I’ll see you soon Max-a-million.”

. . . . .

Chloe half ran and half walked back to her truck ‘Don’t go back, don’t go back.’ she turned round and started walking back to Max’s dorm and then spun round again towards her truck, ‘No, you need to sort out your shit first, Max deserves better.’

Chloe got to her truck and put the key in the ignition and turned, *click* nothing “No…don’t you fucking dare” she said to the truck and turned the key again *click* and nothing. ‘It’s the fucking battery!” Chloe thought. She grabbed her phone, she would have to bite the bullet and call Step-Dick to come with the jumper cables, he was going to be so pissed. She went to hit dial, it rang twice and then her phone died.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?!” she slammed her hands on the steering wheel.

“I’m trying to do the right thing here.” she said looking up to the sky at the universe. It’s fine she could just sleep in her truck, totally fine. She noticed her breath cloud when she breathed out, and started rubbing her hands together. ‘Or I could walk home, the hour and a half walk, in the pitch dark…that could work.’

Chloe got out of her truck and started walking. ‘Or you could turn around and go see Max.’ she shoved her hands in her pockets, ignoring the thought. ‘No, you’ve come this far.’ Chloe kept walking, willing herself forward towards her house and then she spun round, and started marching towards Max’s dorm. “Fuck it.”

. . . . .

Max was getting ready for bed, she had some chilled indie music on in the background whilst she got ready. She thought she heard a tap on the window, but shrugged it off as the start of rain. She finished slipping into her shorts and tank top. She heard the tapping again, a few this time and a bit louder. She went to the window and pulled open the curtains and jumped back when she saw Chloe’s face.

She opened the window hurriedly, “Chloe, what? What?” she cleared some space off her desk as Chloe climbed in to her room.

“Sup Juliet?” she joked, nervous at invading Max’s room and also very aware of the fact that Max was not wearing a bra, “Ummm so funny story…my trucks battery died…along with my phone. I was going to come in through the door but I saw those security assholes going about and didn’t want you getting into shit for having a hot piece of ass over after hours.” she smirked.

Max was still in shock that Chloe was there. She had just resigned herself to the fact that she was going to be Chloe-less for a few days and now she was standing here right in front of her, “So you want me to…?”

Chloe held up her dead phone, “Charger?” she asked, an apologetic smile on her face.

“Yeah, sure.” Max said, taking the phone from Chloe’s hand and moving over to where her stereo was to plug in Chloe’s phone. She stayed there, facing the stereo, turning around and looking at Chloe would only lead to bad things. ‘Incredibly mind blowing bad things’ Max thought.

“So you’re just gonna not look at me?”

Max nodded. Chloe laughed a little, Max could be so fucking cute sometimes, “I’m sorry Max for coming back after I literally just said I shouldn’t be around you, and here I am. Around you.” Chloe looked up the length of Max, her legs on show from her shorts, her ass hugged tightly by the fabric, the back of Max’s neck exposed. She could literally see her willpower packing a bag, jumping on a plane and flying the fuck out of her brain.

She moved behind Max, and put her hands on top of Max’s shoulders. She felt Max shudder at the contact and she ran her hands slowly down Max’s arms until her hands were on top of Max’s which were gripping the end of her chest of drawers tightly.

“Chloe,” Max half protested, “We shouldn’t…” she started and then she felt Chloe kiss her shoulder, making her way up slowly towards Max’s neck. Max craned her neck to the opposite side allowing Chloe more room to suck and nibble on Max’s neck and the back of her earlobe. She could feel Chloe’s breath quicken against her skin, could feel Chloe push her groin into her ass and press her firmly against the chest of drawers, the items on top of it rattling at the sudden movement.

“Max…” Chloe said between kisses, “I can’t…I can’t stop myself.”

Max’s head was spinning, she could feel her knees buckling under the feeling of Chloe’s kisses. “Don’t stop.” Max breathed out. All logical thought had left her mind, this was what she wanted right now, this is what she so desperately needed.

Max’s words urged Chloe further. She moved her left hand up towards Max’s breast and started squeezing Max’s erect nipple, emitting a gasp from the brunette, the other hand wrapped around Max’s small waist and held her tightly against Chloe’s body.

Max moaned at the contact and breathed out “Oh fuck.” Max’s expletives made Chloe wet and arose an animalistic need in her to take Max right then and there. She spun Max around her mouth crashed into hers, she pushed Max against the desk grabbing at the back of Max’s head, pushing their tongues deep into each others mouths as they breathed heavily, panting at the want and the need of each other.

Chloe took one of Max’s legs and wrapped it around her waist, Max raised her ass up on the chest of drawers and wrapped the other one around Chloe. She felt Chloe dragging her nails lightly across Max’s thighs and moaned into Chloe’s mouth, she pulled the beanie off from Chloe’s head and pulled at the back of Chloe’s hair.

Chloe moved her hands round to Max’s ass and hoisted her off the chest of drawers, lifting her towards the bed. Max was surprised at Chloe’s strength as she was walked to the bed and thrown down on it. She lay back as Chloe climbed on top of her, Chloe ran her hand across Max’s forehead, pushing her hair back and taking the sight of her in. “Max if this is too fast we can…”

Max kissed Chloe, hard and wanting and that was all the encouragement Chloe needed to continue. She took off her t-shirt and started unbuckling her belt while Max kissed her. She pulled her jeans down and kicked them onto the floor. Max’s hands went straight to Chloe’s breasts and she started playing with her nipples through the thin bra, “Fuck Max” Chloe said into Max’s mouth.

Chloe lifted Max's tank top up slightly and started kissing Max’s stomach, Max had her hands intwined in Chloe’s hair. Chloe could feel her hands shaking slightly with nerves and so she took her time making her way up, lifting Max’s top a little with each kiss until Max’s breasts were exposed. She licked one of Max’s nipples lightly then took it into her mouth, sucking and scraping her teeth on it. She felt Max’s grip tighten and her hips pushed into her. Chloe lifted the tank top over Max’s head and then took her own bra off.

Max ran her hand down the middle of Chloe’s chest, taking in the site of her half naked. It was utterly and completely breath-taking. Chloe’s thoughts matched Max’s as she looked at the pert breasts under her and the beautiful dusting of freckles down her chest. She ran her hand down the side of Max’s face and through her hair, “You’re so fucking beautiful.” she said and kissed her.

They continued kissing and Max felt Chloe’s hand move down her stomach towards her inner thigh. She gasped at the contact and gripped Chloe to her tighter. She was nervous, but she wanted this, she had only got this far with a few people in the past and usually stopped at this point much to the annoyance of her dates. But nothing was going to make her want to stop Chloe right now, her whole body screamed for Chloe’s touch.

Chloe, moved her hand towards Max’s wet pussy, she ran her hand up it, feeling her damp shorts, proud of herself for making Max so fucking wet. Max felt Chloe’s grin as she kissed her, then she felt Chloe tugging at the shorts. She lifted her hips and let them be pulled down by Chloe, kicking them off as they came down.

Chloe’s hand ran across Max’s thighs again, teasing her, Max thought she would explode from the need. She tried to maneuver herself towards Chloe’s hand and Chloe grinned into her mouth, “Chloe…please.” Max said. The words making Chloe wetter herself and she didn’t hesitate as she ran her fingers over Max’s slick pussy and started rubbing her clit, gently at first and then pressing harder and quickening her pace.

Max started panting steadily and threw her head back, her arm covering her eyes, “Oh fuck!” she breathed out, biting her lip, a fine sheen of sweat starting to form on her face. Chloe could watch Max like this forever. She moved her fingers down slightly and pushed one inside Max and then another.

Max moved her arm and gripped onto Chloe’s back, “Is that okay?” Chloe asked, not wanting to hurt the girl under her.

“Oh yes.” Max replied and Chloe grinned, quickening her pace, fucking her harder and brushing her thumb over her clit.

Max thought she could die right now, the sensations were all too much, she felt like she was going to explode, she couldn’t think, her mind was solely focused on the sensation of Chloe inside her. It was the most amazing feeling in the world. She didn’t want it to end, but she could feel herself on the brink of orgasm.

“Chloe,” she breathed out, “I’m…gonna.”

Chloe kissed Max and said, “It’s okay Max, I’ve got you, cum for me.”

At those words Max screamed and then bit Chloe’s shoulder to quiet herself as the orgasm wrecked her body, she lay back on the bed, her legs and body shaking in the wake of her earth shattering orgasm. Chloe pulled the blanket off the end of the bed and pulled it over the both of them, leaning on one arm and running her fingers lightly across Max’s chest letting Max come back to reality.

“Wowser.” Max said.

Chloe burst out laughing, “Fuck, I love you.” she said and then realized her words and looked at Max like a deer in headlights.

Max simply smiled back at Chloe and pulled her head down to kiss her, “I love you too.” she said.

Chloe smiled, she felt like she was going to cry at those words. Max was so fucking perfect, how could she possibly get this lucky? She moved her head down and rested it on Max’s chest.

“So…does this mean I don’t get a happy meal now?” Max asked, her fingers playing with Chloe’s hair.

Chloe laughed, and looked at Max, “I think it’s safe to say for that, you can have super-size.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...I never know what word to use when you describe the 'area'...sorry if it offended anyone! I hope you like this so far, I'm going to start working on the rest soon and then on the other two that are bouncing around in my head (mostly when I'm at work and should be doing actual work) I really love Pricefield so hope I've added a good piece to the Pricefield fanfic community. If you have any comments/suggestions they would be appreciated, Kudos is appreciated too, let's me know I'm on the right track :) Thanks guys.


	6. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe and Max wake and deal with what happened the night before. Things don't go according to any of their plans.

Chloe woke to the feeling of Max stirring against her body, Max’s head was tucked under Chloe’s chin with one arm draped over her side - pulling Chloe tight against her. Chloe moved her hand to Max’s hair, running her fingers through it and kissed the top of her head lightly. She let her eyes adjust to the light and glanced at the clock on Max’s desk which blinked 8.30am. She felt Max stir again and place a kiss on Chloe’s chest before glancing up at her, “Morning.” Max said and smiled at Chloe.

“Good morning beautiful,” she replied. Max leaned up and placed a light kiss on her lips and then moved to sit up and get out of the bed.

“Yeah I don’t think so!” Chloe said and wrapped her arms around Max, pulling her back into the bed with her while Max giggled. She clamped her arms around Max, forming the perfect spooning position.

“Chloe, I need to go pee!” Max said and tried half-heartedly to escape Chloe’s grasp.

“Hmmm just a few minutes.” Chloe said and kissed the back of Max’s neck and shoulders, sending electric shivers down Max’s spine.

“Hmmm Chloe what you’re doing will not lead to just ‘a few minutes’.”

“Okay okay, but hurry back.” Chloe said and let Max get out of the bed, she smiled as Max tried to cover herself with the covers whilst searching around the bedroom floor for something to wear to the bathroom, “Ummm Max you do know we are past the point of being shy right?” Chloe grinned, her head propped up on her arm as she made no move to cover her naked figure.

Max turned around to look at Chloe her face bright red, she eyed Chloe’s beautiful body laid bare in front of her ‘Wowser’s’ she thought ‘She is so beautiful.’ She leaned down and kissed Chloe before pulling on some clothes and heading out of the door.

Chloe sighed and rolled onto her back, she was grinning ear to ear. She was so happy with Max, so happy last night had happened and that this beautiful, intelligent and wonderful woman loved her. Max loved her and she wasn’t afraid to say it or show it, no mind games, no second guessing - they were completely open with each other. A part of this scared Chloe and she frowned slightly, giving herself to Max completely meant Max had the ability to break her heart entirely. She shook her head ‘Fuck Chloe you’ve barely started with Max and already you’re fast forwarding to it’s inevitable demise…enjoy it while it lasts right?’

She sat up in the bed to get her phone which was still charging next to Max’s stereo. She paused while images flashed in her head of last night, her body pressing Max against that chest of drawers, kissing her shoulders and her neck, running her hands up towards Max’s breasts. ‘Okay focus Chloe…you have a slight problem you need to deal with here. What is it again? Oh yeah your fucking girlfriend.’

A wave of guilt flashed through Chloe as she thought of Rachel. She didn’t need to tell Rachel what had happened with Max, she hadn’t expected to go this far with Max before she could break things off with Rachel but there was a chemistry between them that just took over all her logical reason…and Chloe didn’t have much of that in the first place. She turned on her phone and was surprised to see three missed calls from Rachel, she was debating whether or not to dial her back when Max came back in the room.

Max saw Chloe’s trouble faced and asked, “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” she started, sitting against Max’s photo collage wall with the phone in her hand, “Rachel tried to call me.”

“Oh.” Max replied, and sat with her back facing Chloe on the edge of her bed, “Are you…I mean…do you still want to…talk to her?” she asked, hoping that Chloe hadn’t changed her mind about calling things off with Rachel. Her mind had wandered while in the bathroom and a small part of her was concerned that Chloe would have second thoughts about ending things with Rachel. ‘After all,’ Max thought, ‘How could you compare with Rachel Amber?’

Chloe sensed Max’s worry and moved behind her, wrapping her legs around her and holding her from behind, “Abso-fucking-lutely.” she replied, “Max, I want this…I want us…I mean, you want us right?” Now it was Chloe’s turn to be worried.

Max felt that her face would burst with the smile that beamed on it from Chloe’s words, “I hella want this Chloe.” she said, turning to face her.

Chloe laughed at Max’s word choice and placed her hands on both sides of Max’s face, pulling her in for a deep kiss. They broke apart with their foreheads leaning against each other, “I do need to deal with this though.”

“I know.” Max replied.

“I’m gonna split and try and get hold of her and break this off. Then…can I come and see you? Tonight?” Chloe asked.

“Of course. I’d like that.” Max replied, and Chloe gave her a quick peck before moving, getting changed and heading out of the door.

Max sighed happily and leaned back on the bed giddy, her head spinning with images of all her and Chloe had done last night. It had been amazing, it was more than she had expected from her first time and she couldn’t believe it had been with her best friend. She wouldn’t have had it any other way. Tonight couldn’t come fast enough for Max, but she did worry how Rachel was going to take the news.

. . . . .

Chloe was heading to the exit door of the dorms, about to swing her jacket over her shoulders when she came face to face with, “Rachel?!”

“Chloe?” Rachel was standing in the doorway, a large duffle bag slung over her shoulder which she dropped to the floor, “What are you doing here? Were you here looking for me?”

“Uhhhh…yes.” Chloe lied.

“Oh Chloe I…” Rachel started, but her eyes drifted to Chloe’s shoulder which was exposed from the vest top hanging slightly off it. She saw a purplish bite mark there, the mark that Max had left last night when she had tried to stifle her screams of pleasure. Chloe’s eyes followed Rachel’s stare ‘Oh. Fuck. My. Life.’ she thought as she saw Rachel’s eyes widen in anger, saw her fists clench at the sides. Chloe closed her eyes, expecting a swift slap from Rachel, instead she pushed past her and straight for Max’s dorm, hammering at the door, “Get the fuck out you bitch!” she screamed.

Max quickly jumped off the bed and turned the lock from the inside a split second before Rachel tried the handle ‘Oh fuck,’ Max thought, ‘She knows. Oh god. What do I do?’ Max sat on the bed, pulling her legs to her chest debating whether to stay in or venture out and face the music.

Chloe stood between Rachel and the door, grabbing Rachel’s hands and holding them at her sides. A few faces appeared from their respective dorm rooms now, some of them grumbling about the noise, other’s wanting to get a closer look at the drama that was un-folding.

“Are you fucking kidding me Chloe? You’re fucking HER?”

Chloe looked around, saw people staring and heard some gasps, “Rachel, not here, please…” she began.

“Oh what you don’t want me outing your dirty little secret in public? Don’t want your precious little Max being exposed as the scheming slut that she is!” Rachel screamed so that Max could hear her from the other side of the door.

“Rachel!” Chloe shouted, “Please. Dorm. Now.” she said and Rachel backed down storming to her dorm room and slamming the door behind her. Chloe followed and took a deep breath before stepping inside.

Max quickly grabbed her rucksack and some books, ‘I need to get out of here’ she thought and headed towards the library, ignoring the judgmental looks of some of the people in the hallway.

Victoria was leaning against her door frame, grinning eat to ear at what had just occurred, she picked up her phone and dialed, “Taylor, you’re not going to believe what you just missed.”

. . . . .

Chloe stood inside Rachel’s room for what seemed like eternity while Rachel paced in front of her. She didn’t know what to say or do, she had never wanted Rachel to find out, it was going to make Max’s life really tough here after screwing over the queen bee of Blackwell. What could she possibly say to make this right?

“How could you do this to me Chloe?” Rachel asked, her eyes had began filling with tears now, but the anger was still evident on her face, “After everything we’ve been through, after all this time, and you just go straight into bed with HER. I knew this would happen, I fucking knew it.” she said and sat on the bed, burying her face in her hands.

“Rach, I’m so fucking sorry.” Chloe said and kneeled in front of her, “I didn’t want you to find out this way, I didn’t…”

“It doesn’t make it better that you didn’t want me to find out Chloe. You still did it. So what, you’re going to leave me for her now? Is that it?”

“It’s not about her. We haven’t been working, you know that, you fucked off again to god knows where.”

“But I came back Chloe. I can’t believe I’m hearing this, you’re gonna leave ME for HER. We had plans Chloe, we had a future…”

Chloe cut her off, standing and starting to pace around the room, “No Rachel, YOU had plans. You were gonna go to LA whist I piggybacked on your success and I dunno, worked in some dive bar.”

“Oh but your plans with Max are going to work much better right? I mean what do you think is going to happen there Chloe?”

“I’m not really thinking that far ahead Rach.” Chloe said and turned to face the window, arms folded against her chest. Rachel knew exactly how to press her buttons.

Rachel moved from the bed and stood behind Chloe, mirroring her stance, “Well let me paint you a picture of what a future with her will be like. She becomes incredibly successful, probably gets a post-grad at UCLA, falls in with all those hipster artistic types, and she what? Brings your ass along with her while she goes out and networks and makes a name of herself? No. You know what happens? She leaves you here. She did it before, and you’ll never hear from her again. You know how capable she is of cutting you out of her life without a second thought. You’ll be left here alone…no Max…no me…just you with your step-Dad and Joyce. How does that plan work out for you?”

Chloe felt a tear stream down her cheek and she angrily swiped it away. Rachel had played on every insecurity she had about being with Max, every doubt of being not good enough for her and every worry that Max would leave her again like she had before, “You don’t know anything about me and Max.” she said and turned to face Rachel.

“No, I only know what you told me, you know, the facts about how she left you after your Dad died, no emails, no calls, fuck not even a Facebook request.”

“Don’t.” Chloe said, her jaw clenching, “We’re done here.” she said and made her way to the door.

“Good.” Rachel replied, “Good luck with Max, you’re gonna need it Chloe.”

Chloe slammed the door behind her and made her way out of the dorms towards her truck, dialing David on the way to come with some jumper cables.

. . . . .

Max was sitting at the back of the library, re-reading the same sentence for the fifth time. She didn’t know why she thought she would be able to get any studying done but it was better than sitting in her dorm room waiting for Rachel to pounce. She was scared of what was going to happen now Rachel had found out. ‘It will pass’ she said, taking deep breaths, ‘and you still have Chloe.’ she smiled at the thought and looked at her phone discreetly under the table. No messages and no calls from Chloe. Maybe it would take some time before she was able to contact her, who knows how long she would need to call things off with Rachel and get her to calm down? Max had been hiding out in the library for nearly three hours now.

“Hey Maximus-Prime.”

Max looked up and saw Warren smiling down at her, she offered him a half smile, “Hey Warren.”

Warren took a seat opposite Max at the table, “You okay?” he asked, his face full of concern.

“I guess you’ve heard?” Max asked.

“Yeah. It’s pretty hard to keep things hush hush at Blackwell. Besides, I kinda guessed what was going on.”

“You did?” Max asked, surprised he had been that perceptive.

“I mean, I’m not going to lie Max, I kinda was into you,” his face flushed with embarrassment and Max avoided his gaze, “but at the bowling, I could tell there was something between you two.”

In-spite of herself, Max began to cry. Warren reached out and grabbed her hands, “I’m sorry Warren. I didn’t mean to get so girly on you.” Max offered.

“Hey, it’s okay Max. It’s going to be alright. If you have something special with Chloe, you shouldn’t let it go. Hell, I wish someone looked at me the way she looks at you.”

Max smiled at Warren, he was such a good guy, “They will Warren, they will.” she offered, “I just don’t know what to do now that Rachel knows.”

“It will die down, it’s just gonna take some time. It’s not the first drama at Blackwell and it won’t be the last right?” Max nodded and Warren continued, “Have you spoken to Chloe? I saw her drive out of here a couple of hours ago.”

Max’s stomach fell, Chloe was gone and she hadn’t contacted Max, “Uh, I should go and call Chloe.” she said.

“Sure,” Warren replied and watched as Max stood, gathering her things, “Max if you need anything, let me know okay?”

“Thanks Warren, you’re a good friend.” she smiled and hurried back to her dorm, hoping not to be spotted by Rachel or any of her cronies. When she got to her dorm room, she noticed her slate had “SLUT” scrawled across it and she quickly swiped her hand across it to rub it out.  She opened the door and threw her stuff on the bed, grabbing her phone to call Chloe. She dialed a few times but there was no answer. ‘Fuck Chloe where are you?’ she asked and sat on her bed, her face pressed into her hands, forcing back the tears.

. . . . .

Chloe was sitting in the junkyard at the usual spot where herself and Rachel used to hang around in their happier times. She had just finished her fifth beer when she felt her phone vibrate against her pocket. She ignored it and it eventually stopped. She threw the bottle on the ground and opened another and felt the phone vibrate again. “Fuck sake” she said out-loud and pulled the phone out. Her heart ached in her chest when she saw Max’s name pop up on the screen, she debated answering but placed the phone face down on the crate in front of her.

Her mind was echoing all the words Rachel had said to her earlier in the day. ‘Of course she’s going to fucking leave you. She’s too good for you.’ she thought ’Why would she want to stay now when she didn’t before? Nothing’s fucking changed you’re still the same loser she walked away from and never looked back.’ Chloe sobbed, angry at herself for thinking these thoughts, angry at Rachel, angry at Max, angry at the fucking world.

She heard her phone vibrate against the crate and answered, “What?” she asked.

“Chloe?” she heard Max’s worried voice on the other end of the phone and she wanted so badly to be able to offer some sort of comfort but her head was not going to allow it.

“What do you want Max?” she asked, her words slurring.

“Are you drunk?” Max asked.

“Yes Max, shocking I know, I get drunk, I get high, I do everything the opposite of you okay. I fuck up.”

“Chloe…what’s going on, I don’t understand.”

“Nothings going on okay I’m just being me, you know the same fuck up you walked away from and never thought about right?”

“Chloe, that’s not fair.”

“No I’ll tell you s’not fair,” she continued, her words becoming more slurred as she grew angrier, “It’s not fair to walk out on your best friend and never speak to them again and then make them fall in love with you and with the bowling and your ‘you-ness’, and freckles Max…your god damn beautiful fucking freckles.”

“Chloe you’re making no sense.”

“I can’t do this okay, it’s, we’re not doing this, we’re done. Okay? I’m not going to let you break my heart again.” Chloe’s heart hurt as she heard Max begin to cry on the other end of the phone.

“Chloe…you’re breaking mine. Please don’t do this, can we just talk?”

“No. I can’t Max. I’m sorry.” Chloe hung up and threw the phone against the wall, it broke into two pieces. She sobbed heavily, downing some more of her drink and pulling a joint from her tin to smoke and forget about her problems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this wasn't very feel-good, stay with me on this okay, BAE > BAY all the way ;) Thanks for all the kudos and comments so far, it has meant a lot to me. I will be wrapping this fic up soon and starting on a new fluffier one. Long live the fluff! :D


	7. Chapter Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe deals with the fall-out of her drunken ramblings the night before, she has a lot of making up to do. Will Max forgive her?

Chloe awoke in agony, her head was leaning against the crate in front of her and was pounding from the copious amounts of alcohol she had had the night before. Her neck and back hurt from the position she had fallen asleep in, but nothing hurt as much as her heart when she recalled that she had ended things with Max the night before. ‘Fuck,’ she thought, ‘What did I say to Max?’ Chloe got up and moved to find her phone, she found one part of it and didn’t bother looking for the other part. “You fucking idiot Price.” she said out-loud. She needed to get out of here stat and get to the diner for some coffee, food and to get her head out of her ass.

When she walked into the diner Joyce took one look at her and sighed heavily, “Chloe, what the hell happened to you? Where were you last night?”

“Nowhere.” Chloe replied, “Coffee?”

“Have you been drinking?” Joyce asked angrily as she poured Chloe a cup of coffee and handed it to her, “Is this about Rachel?”

Chloe rubbed her temples, “Please Mom not right now.”

“You and that girl are just drama after drama Chloe. I thought Max being back in your life would make things better for you but…”

“Mom, please, I don’t want to speak about Max right now okay?” Chloe asked, and Joyce saw tears form in her daughters eyes.

“Oh.” Joyce said, “Well…I did wonder when this was going to happen.”

“What?” Chloe asked, looking up her mother confused. Joyce and Chloe rarely spoke about anything to do with Chloe’s romantic life so she was shocked to hear that Joyce had some idea as to what was going on between her and Max.

Joyce hesitated but continued, “Chloe you and Max were always soul-mates of a kind, what you two had as kids and growing up, some people rarely find that. When you came out I thought back on it and how devastated you were when she left, I thought you must have been in love with that girl in some way, then she was back and I saw you two together and well…the way you looked at her, it was the way your father looked at me.” Joyce smiled wistfully, then looked at Chloe, worried that the girl was going to fly off the handle which she was so used to her doing.

Joyce watched as Chloe stared at her mug of coffee and said nothing, “I’ll get you some breakfast.” Joyce said and moved from the counter to place an order in for Chloe.

‘How did I fuck things up so badly?’ Chloe thought. Joyce’s words had made her want to cry but she felt numb, empty, lost. Had she lost Max for good now? Had she thrown away something amazing just because she was afraid?

“Can I get some fucking breakfast over here? Christ!” Chloe’s thoughts were interrupted as Frank pushed his way to the counter, slamming his wallet onto the counter. He looked over at Chloe, “The fuck are you looking at?”

“Fucked if I know.” she retorted, looking at him in disgust.

“You should watch your mouth.” he replied and glared at her angrily.

Joyce came over, “Frank, sit your ass down and wait to be served like everybody else.”

Frank mumbled something under his breath and went to stuff his wallet back in his pocket when a photo flew out and landed on the floor next to Chloe’s feet. Chloe looked down and recognized the woman in the picture - it was Rachel. She reached down and grabbed it, Rachel was standing on Frank’s bed in her underwear, dancing wildly, “Why the fuck do you have a picture of my girlfriend?” ‘Ex-girlfriend’ she corrected in her head.

“Girlfriend?” Frank asked, snatching it out of her hands. “Well, she wasn’t acting like your girlfriend a couple of nights ago when she was in my RV.” he smiled smugly, ready for a fight with Chloe.

Chloe’s hand moved and gripped tightly around the fork on the counter. Joyce noticed and placed her hand over Chloe’s, “Chloe…please.” she said, worried about what her daughters actions would be.

Chloe took a deep breath and let go, “You know what,” she said, getting up from the stool, “You can fucking have her dude.” she said and pushed the photo into Frank’s chest hard and stormed out of the diner.

. . . . .

Chloe headed towards Max’s dorms as fast as she could, she couldn’t believe she had let Rachel convince her that they were doomed, Rachel who was cheating on her with Frank. What the fuck did she know? She just wanted to hurt Chloe, to ruin her and Max before they had even begun. “Fucking textbook Amber.” she said out-loud. ‘How the fuck are you going to get Max to talk to you after last night?’ Chloe hoped that Max would let her speak to her, let her convince her that Chloe was just scared and that she wanted to be with Max more than anything. “She has to forgive me, she just has to.” she said.

When she got to the dorm door she saw the word ‘Slut’ had been half-wiped from Max’s slate and she felt so guilty about creating so much drama for Max, for hurting her in any way. ‘How could Rachel act so pissed after what she did?’ Chloe’s blood boiled when she thought of Rachel, but she was not her number one-priority right now. Her number one priority was on the other side of the door that she was trying to get the courage to knock on.

She tapped a soft knock on the door and stood back, her hands anxiously stuffed in her pockets as she rocked back on forth on the balls of her feet. No answer. She knocked again and still Max didn’t come to the door. She pressed her ear against the door and heard some movement inside. “Max?” she asked but still Max didn’t answer the door. “Please, I’m so sorry, please answer the door.”

Chloe heard the lock click and stood back a bit, when Max opened the door slightly, Chloe gulped ‘Oh man. She is hella pissed.’ Chloe stood looking at Max, a sheepish look on her face, “Hey Max Factor.”

“What do you want Chloe?” Max asked.

Chloe noticed that her eyes were puffy, no doubt from all the tears Chloe had made her shed the night before, “Max, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean any of it, can we just talk please?”

“Chloe, how could you say those things to me? I wanted to talk to you last night but…I don’t even want to see you right now.” she said and shut the door. Chloe could hear her crying on the other side.

“Max please.” she said, her fore-head pressed against the door. “Please just let me explain.” She jumped back when Max opened the door again, her books in her arms and her bag over her shoulder. She closed the door behind her and made her way to the exit.

Chloe grabbed her arm and spun her round, “Max don’t ignore me please. Talk to me.”

“Chloe, I don’t want to see you right now okay, I’ve got to go to class.” Max turned and started walking away.

“Well I’m not leaving.” Chloe said and Max stopped. She turned around and saw Chloe sit cross legged in front of her door, leaning her back against it, “So you can go to class but I’m still going be here when you get back.”

Max walked out of the dorms and Chloe resigned herself to the fact that she was in for a long wait.

. . . . .

It had been four hours since Max had left Chloe sitting outside her dorm room door and Chloe had remained there, standing and getting the feeling back in her legs every so often. Every time someone came into the dorms, Chloe looked over expectantly and then looked deflated when it wasn’t Max. ‘What if she leaves me here all night? What if she doesn’t come back and goes and shacks up with that floppy haired geek?’ Chloe thought. ‘No, Max isn’t like that. She’ll come back, and I’ll be here.’

Chloe heard voices and looked over to see Rachel walking into the dorms. Rachel looked down at her and laughed, “Well this is pathetic.” she said. Victoria and Taylor were standing behind her and laughed.

Their laughing soon faded when they saw the rage on Chloe’s face as she got up and stormed towards Rachel, “You know what’s pathetic Rach? Fucking Frank.” Victoria and Taylor stepped back and made their way to Victoria’s room, wanting to get out of the line of Chloe’s fire. They could talk the talk but when it came down to it, Chloe slightly terrified them.

Rachel stood, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to think of a response, “What’s the matter Rach? Cock got your tongue?” Chloe said.

“How did you find out about that?” she asked.

“Does it matter?”

“It didn’t mean anything okay.”

“Well Max did, does, she means fucking everything. If you cared about me at all, you wouldn’t want to ruin that for me, you wouldn’t do this to me.”

Rachel felt sick at the realization. She took a deep breath and swallowed her pride and jealousy, “You’re right.”

Chloe was stunned, she never expected to Rachel to say that. Her anger faded and she asked, “How did we get like this?”

“I don’t know Chloe, I don’t fucking know.” Rachel hugged her arms around her chest, “I fucked up, I was so hurt and angry that you could do that to me…but I did the same to you. We used to be so good, I just didn’t want to lose you.”

“I know.” Chloe said, “But we couldn’t keep going round in circles just because it’s familiar, look what it did to us.”

Rachel nodded, “I don’t want us to hate each other Chloe.”

“I know.” Chloe said again, “We just need to take some time apart, to deal with all the shit.”

“Yeah I think you’re right, but I’ll miss you Chlo.”

“I’ll miss you too Rach.” They stood awkwardly for a second then pulled each other into a quick hug, “Can you do me a favor? Can you call off the hounds on Max?”

Rachel looked at her, one-eyebrow raised, “I guess so. I still don’t like her though.”

“That’s your call.” Chloe said.

Rachel offered a half-smile and then made her way back to her dorm room whilst Chloe resumed her position outside Max’s door. She was relieved that she could at least be civil with Rachel now and even though she was angry she had slept with Frank, in the end it all really didn’t matter anymore, all that mattered was Max.

. . . . .

Max was again hiding out in the library. It had been nine hours since she had left for class and then she had avoided going back to her dorm for as long as possible. She looked at her phone to check the time, it was just past 7pm. ‘There is no way Chloe has waited this long,’ she thought. She packed her books away and made her way back to the dorms. She took a deep breath before turning the corner towards her room and was shocked and a bit relieved in-spite of herself to see Chloe still sitting there. Chloe looked up and her face burst with a smile when she saw Max. Max wanted to grab her, kiss her, make everything right, but she was still too hurt and angry to do so.

Chloe said nothing as Max stood in front of her unlocking the door, she remained sitting cross legged and let Max step over her and close the door behind her. Max threw her books on her sofa and sat on the bed, debating whether to let Chloe in or not, ‘I can’t believe she has sat here all day.’

“I spy with my little eye,” she heard Chloe say from the other side of the door, “Something beginning with ‘D’”

Max said nothing but laughed a little, quickly covering her mouth and trying to return her angry resolve.

“Max?” Chloe asked and Max said nothing, “Do you give up? I’ll give you a hint. It’s the thing you won’t open because you’re stubborn as hell. Max come on, please. Max…Max…Maaaax…Max…MAX..” Chloe huffed and then tried one last time, “Maxine? Maxine Caul…” the last word was cut off as Max opened the door and Chloe fell back, staring up at Max looking over her, “Oh hey, didn’t see you there.”

“Max…never Maxine.” Max said, feigning a look of annoyance but Chloe was pleased to see a ghost of a smile on the girls lips. She scrambled to her feet, shaking her legs to regain some feeling back in them.

“So you really know how to keep a girl waiting.” she said nervously as she rubbed the back of her neck, “Max, please let me explain about last night.”

Max sat on the edge of her bed and sighed, “Chloe, you don’t have to explain, I know what happened, you freaked out.”

Chloe went to sit beside her then stopped herself, “Can I?”

Max patted the bed next to her and Chloe sat and continued, “Max, I’m so sorry about what I said. I just got so fucking scared. When you left before…”

“Chloe you can’t keep casting that up.” Max interrupted.

“Max please, let me just say all this shit that’s in my head.” Max nodded and Chloe continued, “When you left before, it cut me up so much inside, I know you had to go because of your parents but when I didn’t hear from you, it hurt so bad. Now you’re back and I’ve fallen so absolutely in love with you so fast.” Max felt her stomach flip at Chloe’s words, “I realized that what I went through when you left before is just like a small glimpse into what it will be like when you leave me again. I don’t know if I can survive it.”

Max turned to face Chloe, “Chloe, you’re talking like me leaving is inevitable, you’ve resigned yourself to the fact that I’ll go but don’t you know how I feel about you? It cut me up too to leave you, and now I love you even more, in so many different ways than I did before, I don’t ever want to lose you again. You don’t think I worry that you’ll realize that I’m just a photography nerd who will never be cool enough to fit into your world?”

“Max, no! You’re amazing, you’re everything that’s good and wonderful in this world, you make this world worth living.” Chloe brought a hand up and cupped Max’s face and Max leaned into it, a single tear falling down her cheek.

“Then why would you throw that all away?”

“Because I’m a scared, stupid fucking idiot. I don’t want to throw it all away. Please Max, can we just, move past this?”

Max took Chloe’s hand from her cheek and held it tightly, “Only if this doesn’t happen again. No more freak-outs, just us. You have to trust me Chloe.”

“I do Max, I do. I want this.” Chloe moved forward, leaning her forehead against Max’s. She wanted to kiss the brunette desperately but was scared to make the first move.

Max sensed Chloe’s hesitation and leaned up and lightly brushed her lips against the Chloe’s. Chloe sighed and leaned into the kiss, deepening it. Max felt Chloe’s tongue push into her mouth and felt her fingers through her hair. It wasn’t the frenzied, lust-filled kisses from two nights previous, this kiss was full of love and promise.

When they moved away from each other, Chloe pushed Max’s bangs from her face and ran her thumb down to caress her cheek, “So can I take you on that date now?”

Max smiled, “I think that could be arranged. But…you should probably shower first, no offense but you smell a bit like a garbage dump.”

Chloe laughed and then felt embarrassed, “Yeah I probably am pretty ripe. How about tomorrow after your classes? Can I come pick you up?” Max nodded and Chloe continued, “I would say I’ll text you, but…kinda broke my phone.”

Max shook her head, guessing what Chloe had done in her drunken stupor, “Pick me up at 7.”

“7 it is m’lady.” Chloe said and gave Max a quick kiss on the lips and made her way to the door. She lingered at the door smiling at Max and said, “Hey Max?”

“Yeah?”

“You look sexy when you’re angry.” Chloe winked and walked out of the dorms.

Max shook her head, giggling, and closed the door to her dorm.


	8. Chapter Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe finally takes Max on their first date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all your comments and support for this work. I am nearly finished this one (just one more chapter to go) please be warned that this is very smutty (I can't help it, it just went that way - and who doesn't like a bit of smut right?) I am working on another slightly fluffier fic, please check that out if you can, I've just posted the first chapter of it a week ago and I'll be updating that one soon. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter and as always any feedback and kudos is really appreciated, it's great to know people are getting enjoyment from this because I know how much I've enjoyed reading all the talented stories out there so if I can put a smile (or a blush depending on the content) on someone's face from reading this then mission accomplished.

Chloe approached Max’s dorm room at 7pm sharp, her legs were like jelly and her palms were sweating, ‘Why am I so nervous? It’s just Max!’ she thought. Things were different now though, they were going on an actual date. She had worried all day that Max had gone back to being mad at her after her drunken ramblings and she would need to camp out in front of her door again ‘Good job I wore comfy jeans just incase.’

Taking a deep breath, Chloe knocked on Max’s door and heard movement from the other side. Max opened the door and Chloe’s breath caught in her throat. Max was wearing a burgundy off the shoulder dress and some black boots, she had applied some make up and pinned half her hair up. Chloe thought she looked like the most beautiful, breath-taking, wonderful sight she had ever seen but all she could muster was, “Wow.”

Max looked at the floor, blushing furiously, “I…it’s too much isn't it?” she asked, “I didn’t know what to wear and I picked up these thinking they would look good but now I just don’t look like me, I can change…”

“No don’t you dare!” Chloe interrupted, “Max you look…fucking beautiful.” Chloe breathed out as she fought the urge to pull the brunette into her arms and kiss her.

Max beamed at Chloe’s words and then ran her eyes up the bluenette at the other side of the door, “You look really good too Chloe.” Chloe was wearing her usual punk-rock attire but had toned it down a bit, jeans and a plain black tee with a blazer to top it off and no beanie in sight. 

“Thanks.” Chloe said, beginning to blush herself, “Um…these are for you.” she said, avoiding eye contact and shoving a bunch of flowers in front of Max. 

“Chloe Price, are you trying to woo me?” Max joked, taking the flowers and smelling them before looking for something in her room to substitute for a vase. 

“Trying? I thought I already had?” Chloe replied, waggling her eyebrows at Max. 

Max was pouring water from a bottle into a small jug she had found to place the flowers in as she glanced over, “Well that’s true.” she said and smirked at Chloe.

‘I just want to take her right now, throw her against that wall and rip all those clothes off and…no Chloe…date…date first!’ Chloe thought.

“Earth to Chloe?” Max said, waving a hand in front of her face, “You ready?” Max asked, standing in front of her with her coat on.

“Oh yeah, sorry, m’lady” she said and crooked her arm for Max to take, leading her out of the dorms. 

“So where are we going?” Max asked.

“It’s a surprise.”

“Somehow the word surprise coming from you always fills me with dread.”

Chloe laughed, “When have my surprises ever been anything less than epic?”

“Oh I don’t know, like the time you threw the spider on me when we were eight and said ‘surprise!’. Then there was that time when you pushed me down the skate ramp on my board even though I so wasn’t ready and yelled ‘surprise!’”

Chloe laughed, “Yeah you were a pretty crappy skater Max.”

Max poked her finger in Chloe’s ribs, “Or when we were baking with Joyce and you pushed my head into the bowl of flour and yelled ‘sur…”

“Okay okay I get it, I’ve not got the best track record of surprises. Sounds like I have a lot of making up to do,” Chloe stopped just outside her truck, “and not just for the other night.” she said looking down, holding Max’s hands in front of her.

“Chloe,” Max started as she lifted the girls chin up to look at her, “I forgive you okay? I mean, you forgive me after what happened when I left...right?”

“Of course I do.” 

“Well, let’s just put that behind us okay, let’s enjoy tonight.” 

Chloe moved towards Max to kiss her, but Max turned her head so Chloe caught her cheek, “Hey, what gives?” Chloe asked pouting.

Max feigned shock and put her hand on her chest, “Miss.Price, do you think I would kiss on a first date?” she said and Chloe opened the truck door for her letting her get inside. 

Chloe leaned on the open window frame of the passenger side once the door was closed, “Oh Miss.Caulfield, I do believe by the end of the night, you’ll be doing more than that.” she said with a wink and walked over to the driver’s side. Max felt her stomach flip at Chloe’s flirtations and felt heat rise within her, she knew Chloe was probably right, but at least she could pretend to have some self control for a little bit. 

. . . . . 

“Chloe?” Max asked after she realized she recognized the familiar route they were taking, “Are we going where I think we’re going?”

Chloe laughed, “I dunno Max, where do you think we’re going?”

Max raised one eyebrow at her, “Well it’s not a five star restaurant that’s for sure.”

Chloe’s smile faltered, “Sorry Max, I’m a bit strapped for cash, otherwise I totally…”

“Chloe, I’m kidding. As long as I’m with you, I don’t care where we go.” she said and placed her hand on Chloe’s knee. Chloe took Max’s hand and kissed the top of it before placing it back down. 

“You’re still going to be surprised though, I promise.” she said as they pulled into the familiar clearing where their secret hang-out used to be. 

Max looked up out of the passenger window at the old treehouse skeptically, “Umm, are you sure it’s safe to go in there?” Max asked as she stepped out of the truck.

“Totally,” Chloe replied and walked around the truck towards Max, “I’ve been maintaining it for years after you abandoned our secret pirate club. What was I meant to do with all my booty?” she said, slapping her ass. 

Max face-palmed herself, “You’re such a dork.”

“Wait here!” Chloe said and ran up the ladder towards the treehouse. 

Max watched as Chloe half ran up the ladder and gasped when saw the inside of the treehouse light up, ‘How can Chloe manage to hook that up and keep this treehouse in one piece and yet her room looks like a rubbish dump.’ she thought. 

Chloe came back down the ladder and gestured for Max to go up, “After you m’lady.” Max started climbing the ladder with Chloe close behind her, “I am getting a super view from here Maximus” she joked and Max blushed as she attempted to hold down the back of her dress as she climbed. 

The inside of the treehouse nearly took her breath away, it was lit with a couple of strings of fairy lights and a few candles were scattered around ‘Note to self - don’t knock them over’ Max thought. Chloe had laid out a few blankets, some cushions and there was a bottle of wine and picnic hamper in the middle of the treehouse. Adorned on the walls were a few old drawings that Max and Chloe had done when they were younger. Max wished so much that she had her camera with her at this moment to capture just how perfect it was. 

“It’s not too cold out but I got these just incase,” Chloe said gesturing to the blankets, “I mean I’m pretty good but I fall short of installing a central heating system up here. I mean, I hope it’s okay, if you want we can go somewhere else?” Chloe looked at Max nervously, hoping this make-shift date location was enough to make the brunette happy. 

Max beamed and hugged Chloe tightly, “Chloe this is so perfect. I love this…thank you.” 

Chloe grinned and pulled back from Max’s grasp, kissing the top of the brunettes head before moving to sit down cross-legged beside the hamper, patting the space next to her, “So we have,” she started pulling food out of the hamper, “uh popcorn, got some strawberries because that’s meant to be romantic as shit for some reason…oh and Joyce let me snag some food from the diner.”

“Let you?” Max asked skeptically.

“Max what do you take me for?” Chloe asked, feigning hurt look, “I think when I told her what it was for she wanted to do anything she could to help. She is hella excited about us.” 

Max grinned, “Well I always was the daughter she never had.” 

Chloe glared at Max in mock anger and Max knew she was about to pounce, “I take it back, I take it back!” Max screamed before Chloe launched herself on her and began a full tickle assault. Max laughed as Chloe ran her fingers up and down her sides as Max tried to catch her breath, “Stop stop, mercy!” Max begged. Chloe grinned and took Max’s wrists and pinned them up above her head, this action made Max struggle to breath but for a very different reason. Chloe moved her head down and lightly brushed her lips against Max’s, Max tried to push herself off the ground enough to lean into the kiss but in a split second Chloe was off the ground and sitting back up, opening the bottle of wine.

Max pouted slightly and Chloe laughed, “Easy tiger.” she said with a wink. 

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Max asked, gesturing at the wine bottle.

“Well it’s not like we can ruin my Mom’s carpet in here,” Chloe said laughing, “You don’t have to drink any if you don’t want to Maximus.”

Max eyed the glass, then shrugged, taking a sip, “Ugh, I really don’t get how people can like this.” she said as she attempted another sip and stuck out her tongue in disgust.

“You are hella cute sometimes you know that?” Chloe said, taking a swig of the wine, “A huge fucking dork…but cute.”

. . . . . 

An hour later both girls had pushed the remnants of their small feast to the side of the treehouse and were lying with one blanket draped across them. Chloe was laying back with her head on the cushions and Max was on her side with her leg wrapped around Chloe’s legs with her head nuzzled in the girls chest. Chloe idly played with Max’s hair as she stared up at the ceiling in the treehouse, looking at the stars through the gaps in the wooden slats. 

Max sighed contently, “Chloe, this was the best first date ever, thank you.” she said as she ran her fingers lightly up and down the bluenette’s stomach. 

“Thank you for letting me.” Chloe said smiling, “How are you feeling after the wine?” Chloe asked. She felt a little light headed but was used to drinking a lot more in one sitting than Max was.

“Hmmm, okay, a little fuzzy but not in a bad way.” Max said and lifted Chloe’s shirt up slightly, placing a kiss on the girls navel.

Chloe felt herself get instantly aroused at the feel of Max’s mouth on her skin ‘How does she manage to do this to me with one kiss?’ she thought. “Uh, that’s…gr-ood.”

Max giggled and placed another soft kiss on Chloe’s stomach, “Grood?”

“Uh I wanted to say great but also good so…yeah.” Chloe felt her face grow hot but was unsure if it was from embarrassment or from the feeling of Max’s ever increasing kiss attack on her stomach. 

Max continued kissing Chloe’s stomach and began unbuttoning Chloe’s jeans, “Uhhh Max…?” Chloe asked, placing a hand on the brunettes, “Are you…sure?” Chloe asked, hoping and praying that Max would say yes. 

Max smiled and decided the best answer was to take one of Chloe’s fingers from on top of her own hand and lightly run her tongue across the tip then take the full digit in her mouth, sucking lightly and dragging her teeth across it as she pulled it out of her mouth. Chloe’s eyes widened as she stared at Max’s actions and she breathed out, “Fuck.” 

Max grinned, feeling bold from the slight inebriation of the wine, and continued unbuttoning Chloe’s jeans and pulled the zipper down. She kissed the newly exposed skin right above the girl’s underwear. She could hear Chloe gasping and felt her arching her hips up towards Max’s face. Max tugged slightly on the jeans and Chloe moved her hands down, pulling her jeans down and kicking them off when they reached her feet. 

Max climbed on top of Chloe, running her hands through her blue hair and trailing her finger tips down her face, “You’re so beautiful.” Max said, her eyes brimming with tears.

Chloe swallowed as she felt a lump of emotion in her throat and pulled Max into a deep kiss. Their tongues brushed up against each other as they kissed passionately, moaning into each others mouths. Chloe grasped at the back of Max’s head, tugging at the hair on the back of her neck. Max steadied herself with one hand to keep balance and ran her fingers down Chloe’s body, grazing her nipples before moving further down to Chloe’s soaked underwear. Chloe gasped into Max’s mouth as she felt Max’s fingers tuck under the elastic in her underwear, running her fingers so close to the place where Chloe wanted them the most and yet so far, driving her insane. 

Chloe moaned and tried to push herself into Max’s hand as she felt Max grin against her mouth, “Max…please.” Chloe begged and then whined as she felt Max remove her hand completely, “Max?!” 

Max chuckled and maintained eye contact as she started kissing her way down Chloe’s body. “Oh.” Chloe said as she guessed where Max was heading, she put a hand under Max’s chin, “Are you sure?” Chloe asked. 

“Super duper sure.” Max affirmed.

“I love you, you complete dork.” Chloe said laughing as she watched Max move further down her body. 

“I love…you…too.” Max said between kisses. She kneeled between Chloe’s legs and began kissing her soft thighs, she hooked her fingers in Chloe’s underwear and started pulling them off. Chloe obliged, arching her hips as Max pulled them off and tossed them to the side, continuing to kiss and nibble on Chloe’s thighs. 

Max could hear various muffled expletives coming from Chloe as she looked up and saw that Chloe was covering her face with her hands, her legs were shaking slightly, Max could tell she was agonizingly turned on and desperate to feel Max’s tongue. Not able to keep up the teasing any longer, Max drew her tongue in one sweeping motion from near Chloe’s centre to the bundle of nerves at the top tasting her soaking wet sweetness. 

“Oh fuck Max!” Chloe cried out and her arms sprung off her face and gripped at the blanket underneath her. 

Max grinned, and continued her motions, slow and gentle at first but moving faster as she felt Chloe move her hips into the motion. Max moved slightly to push one finger inside Chloe, bending her finger inside to feel her G Spot, once she found the spot she started circling it, applying some pressure as she continued her relentless motions with her tongue, she felt proud that she was making Chloe feel this way, she had been so nervous about trying to bring the girl to climax but the wine had really helped steady her nerves and had made her bold. 

Max felt Chloe tighten around her finger and felt Chloe’s legs start to shake, “Fuck Max, I’m gonna…” Chloe started and then gripped the back of Max’s head as she came hard. Max continued her motions with her tongue until she felt Chloe still and she moved away, wiping her face on the blanket before climbing up to rest her head on Chloe’s chest. She could hear Chloe’s heart hammering in her chest and could feel Chloe’s body still twitching slightly in the aftermath of her orgasm. 

“Wow.” Chloe said, trying to steady her breath.

“Was that…okay?” Max asked, pretty sure that she had satisfied her lover but wanting to make sure. 

“Ummm I’m not sure, I’m gonna need you to do that like, another fifty thousand times…just to check.” 

Max laughed, “Wow I better start working on my jaw muscles.” she said and rubbed the sides of her face slightly, they did feel overworked for sure but it was completely worth it, and she would definitely be getting more practice in. 

“Oh I think I could help you with that.” Chloe said moving Max off of her chest to climb on top of the brunette, “But maybe you should just lie back and take rest for a bit?” Chloe said as she started kissing Max’s neck and running her hands down Max's body to the hem of the girls dress pulling up the fabric and lightly brushing her fingers over Max’s soaking wet underwear making the brunette gasp. 

“I cannot believe you kept this on, this is completely unfair.” Chloe breathed into Max’s ear as she nibbled on the girls earlobe.

“Mmmm,” Max moaned, “Well what are you going to do about it?” she asked.

Chloe’s eyes gleamed as she looked down at Max and gave her a quick kiss, “Turn around.” Chloe said. 

“Huh?” Max asked, dazed.

Chloe chuckled and shook her head, she moved to Max’s side and turned the brunette so that Chloe was spooning the shorter girl. Chloe brushed Max’s hair from her neck and began kissing the skin there sending electric shivers down Max’s spine. Max gasped and grabbed at the blanket under her. Chloe continued kissing down Max’s spine as she lowered the zip on the dress. She slipped the dress down Max's arms, exposing her shoulders, kissing and nibbling at the skin there before pushing the dress down further. She moved up slightly to pull the dress off and returned to her position, spooning the shorter girl.

Max could feel Chloe’s mouth on her neck and her ear and the feeling was driving her crazy, making her head and her mind spin, she was vaguely aware that the girl had reached over and pulled one of Max’s leg’s back moving it drape behind her and over Chloe’s legs. Chloe’s other hand moved under the side Max was lying on and started lightly squeezing the brunettes nipple. Max was gasping for air as all the sensations of Chloe’s touching, breathing and licking drove her crazy, she could feel her wetness dripping down her thighs and could feel a gentle rocking motion from Chloe as she pushed herself against Max’s ass. 

Chloe moved her other hand around to brush her fingers up the inside of Max's wet thigh and grinned as she moved her fingers further up and felt just how turned on her lover was. She lightly brushed her fingers over Max’s clit making the girl let out a loud moan. The sound made Chloe bite harder on the brunette’s neck and Max reached her arm around to grab the back of Chloe's head, pushing her head in harder. 

Chloe continued rubbing Max’s clit, feeling her get closer to climax. Suddenly she stopped and moved away from Max who fell onto her back at the sudden loss of the girl behind her. She looked at Chloe confused, still dazed and overcome with the ecstasy of Chloe’s touch, “Don’t worry baby.” Chloe said, “I just want to taste you.” 

Max watched as Chloe moved her head between Max’s legs and cried out as she felt Chloe’s tongue touch her clit, “Oh fucking fuck…fuck Chloe…fuck” she screamed out. 

Chloe grinned as she continued to taste Max and started moving her tongue rapidly, Max didn’t last very long before she came hard and bucked against Chloe’s mouth screaming out a stream of swear words that made Chloe giggle. She waited until the girl had stilled and she moved up to lay beside the brunette, “Wow Max,” she said, “That’s seventy eight dollars for the swear jar.”

Max laughed and then suddenly hugged Chloe tightly to her, clinging to the girls lithe frame, “Hey are you okay?” Chloe asked concerned.

“I just love you so much. I don’t want to lose you again.” Max said, overcome with emotion which she guessed was probably enhanced after her mind blowing orgasm. 

Chloe squeezed the brunette tightly to her and kissed the top of her head, “Max, I am never leaving you, you’re stuck with me forever.” 

Max looked up through watery eyes, “Forever?” 

“I’m afraid so.” Chloe said smiling, and kissed the brunette whilst wiping the tears away from her cheeks.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Graduation day for Max and the start of the rest of her life with her partner in time.

“Come on we are gonna be late!” Chloe said as she swung open Joyce’s car door and tried to pull the woman out of the seat.

“Chloe!” Joyce pushed the girls arms out of the way and got out of the car, “We still have forty five minutes would you please calm down.”

“I can’t, I swear to god if I don’t get in at least the first three rows…”

“Chloe,” Joyce put her arms on her daughter’s shoulders, “Please just breathe. You’d think that Max should be the one nervous today not you.” she said chuckling.

“I’m not nervous,” Chloe began as she started a fast pace towards Blackwell, “Just excited, I mean it’s graduation, this is it no more studying or exams…”

“No more putting up with your mopey attitude when you can’t see her because she’s studying or has exams.” 

Chloe stuck her tongue out at Joyce, “Ha ha very fu…” Chloe’s sentence was interrupted when she saw Rachel standing next to the entrance to Blackwell having a quick smoke in her Graduation outfit. Rachel tipped her cap at Chloe who offered an awkward smile in response.

Joyce noticed the tension and decided to excuse herself, “Umm I’ll go get us some seats, I’ll see you inside.” 

“Okay…hey remember first three rows, I don’t care if you have to knock a bitch out.”

“Chloe!” Joyce scolded as she made her way inside Blackwell. 

Rachel was laughing, “Well it’s nice to see you’re still as charming as ever Price.” 

It had been several months since Rachel and Chloe had come face to face, Chloe had seen her in passing but had tried to avoid ever going to the halls since her and Max had got together. She respected that it was Rachel’s space too and she didn’t need any drama in her life. Rachel had been true to her word about getting her attack dogs to step down and her and Max had managed to avoid each other successfully and at times when they couldn’t she had been civil. 

“You nervous?” Chloe pulled a cigarette out of her packet and lit up.

“Nah, I’m just glad to get this over with.” 

“I hear ya. So what’s your big plans after Grad?”

“L.A I think still…I don’t know, but I’m getting straight out of this hell hole that’s for sure.”

“I don’t blame you.”

“So what are you and Max’s plans?”

Despite the fact that it had been a few of years, Chloe still felt weird hearing Rachel ask about her relationship with Max, “I don’t know, I think Max wants to go San Francisco. Since she went there after she won that contest it’s all she’s gone on about.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“Where Max goes…I go.” Chloe stated.

Rachel smiled, and Chloe believed it was genuine no matter how much that might have hurt her to hear that, “Well..I better get ready, I…” Rachel stood awkwardly, unsure of how to say goodbye.

Chloe threw her cigarette on the ground and stubbed it out and then pulled Rachel in for a quick hug, “Good luck.” she said, “With everything.” she smiled as she watched Rachel walk inside and let out a deep breath when she was out of sight. ‘Well now that we have that awkwardness over with, let’s go see my girl.’ She felt a huge grin spread across her face as she made her way to the assembly hall. 

She spotted Joyce in the second row, “Yes go Joyce!” she said as she sat in a seat next to her. “You got the camera?” 

“Hmmm…now gosh I’m sure I meant to take it…” Joyce started and then laughed as she saw the color drain from Chloe’s face, “Chloe I’m joking, you asked me at least thirty times today if I got the camera, and yes I have the camera.” she took it out and waved it in front of Chloe.

“Don’t do that!” Chloe said and started flipping through the program for the ceremony, scanning for Max’s name.

“If you’re this nervous now I hate to think what you’re going to be like on your wedding day.” 

“Yeah I…” Chloe’s eyes widened and in a higher pitch then she knew she could reach she let out, “What?!”

Joyce laughed, “Oh come on don’t tell me you two aren’t thinking about all that.”

“Wh…well..I…uh…I mean…yeah I guess but uh…20…legal yet…” Chloe couldn’t get a comprehensive sentence out. 

Luckily she was interrupted as the stage lit up and the audience applauded politely as Principle Wells stepped up to the podium to give his speech. Chloe half listened but her head was spinning with what her Mom had said. ‘Marriage. Marry Max. Me and Max…Married. I mean, we totally could now, there’s nothing stopping us. But, woah. Mrs Maxine Price…Mrs Maxine Price-Caulfield? Mrs.Chloe Caul…no that’s just weird. Mrs Chloe Price. Huh…’

Chloe brought her focus back to the stage when they started reading out the names of the graduates. She knew Max would be one of the last groups called as she had graduated with distinction ‘Obviously, my lil nerd.’ She could feel herself almost bouncing up and down in the seat waiting for Max to come out. 

Finally, after what felt like hours…days even…Principle Wells called out “Maxine Caulfield” and Max appeared from the side of the stage, “Mom camera!” Chloe half shouted but Joyce had already stood up and started snapping some shots. 

‘Oh my god there she is, she looks amazing.’ She watched as Max walked over to Principle Wells and shook his hand whilst accepting her diploma. ‘I feel like I’m going to explode with pride.’ Chloe leapt up from her seat and shouted “Max you fucking rule! Woop woop!” ‘Uh oh…I guess I just kinda did explode with pride…whoops.’

Chloe promptly planted herself back down in her seat and felt her face grow hot with embarrassment. She saw the dark shade of red she had turned mirrored in Max’s face but Max gave Chloe a wink as she walked off the stage. Chloe glanced over to the right of the second row and saw Ryan and Vanessa looking at her with raised eyebrows. Chloe offered an apologetic shrug and Ryan laughed while Vanessa just shook her head, they should be used to her by now and probably didn’t expect anything less.

. . . . . 

There was a small gathering afterwards in the hall with some cheap fizz and snacks, Joyce had to go to work and left Chloe anxiously waiting for Max to come out, she was desperate to see her and squeeze the life out of her. She felt a hand on her shoulder and came face to face with Ryan, “Hey kiddo.” he said and pulled her into a hug.

“Quite the outburst Chloe.” Vanessa said.

Chloe rubbed the back of her neck nervously, “Yeah sorry about that.”

“Hey she got the best cheer out there and she deserves it.” Ryan said and bumped shoulders with his wife to ease her out of her mood.

“Well…at least we weren’t filming it. Oh Ryan, we should have filmed it!” Vanessa said and slapped him on the arm.

“See what you have to deal with with the Caulfield women?” Ryan said to Chloe whilst he rubbed his arm in the sore spot, “They are never happy! You sure you still want to sign up for this?” 

“Dad! I’m standing right here!” Max said from behind Chloe. 

Chloe spun around and lifted Max off the ground in a huge hug, “Oh my god, I love you so much, you did amazing Max.” Chloe said and finally put the giggling girl down and started kissing her all over her face, “You…are…so…amazing.” she said between kisses. 

“Chloe stop!” Max said laughing, “I didn’t actually do anything, other than walk on a stage.”

“No you did, you fucking graduated, you’re free!” Chloe said, gripping the girls shoulders and shaking her slightly. 

“Did you have Red Bull this morning?” 

“Oh ha ha…no, I’m just so excited and so fucking proud of you.” 

“Well if I couldn’t tell from all this, I could tell from your fan-girling when I was on the stage.”

“Yeah…sorry about that.” Chloe embarrassed and stared at the ground as she linked hands with Max.

“Don’t be…I kinda liked it, felt like a rock star.” Max said.

“Well I was one step away from throwing my panties at you…especially in this little black dress.” Chloe said, lifting her head to look at Max, causing the girls stomach to flip from the lust she could see in the blue haired girls eyes.

“Ahem, cough cough.” Ryan said from behind Chloe making Max compose herself quickly and move over to hug them both.

“We are so proud of you Maxie.” Vanessa said.

“Thanks Mom, thanks for coming all the way out here for this.”

“Of course we would, we wouldn’t miss it for the world! So what are your plans now? Do you want to come and stay with us in Seattle for a bit?” Vanessa asked.

Chloe her felt her stomach sink a little, ‘Eh I think the fuck not.’ 

“No!” Max said, a little too definitively, “I mean, thank you but I’m gonna stay here with Chloe until we figure out what we want to do.” Max said, taking Chloe’s hand. 

Chloe felt her heart swell in her chest and said “Yeah Joyce is cool with it, but hopefully we won’t have to hang around Arcadia for long.”

“Well, we thought that would be the case, you two are tied at the hip.” Ryan said, digging in his pockets for something, “This is your Graduation present. It’s to give you guys a head start on you new life.” He handed an envelope to Max, she opened it and gasped.

“Dad, Mom… I can’t…this is too much.”

“Don’t be silly,” Vanessa started, “You’re our only daughter, let us spoil you for once.” 

“Thank you, I…I don’t know what to say.” Max enveloped her parents in a hug once more.

Chloe had tried to sneak a peak at the cheque Max had pulled out of the card but had no luck. She didn’t think it was appropriate to just blurt out ‘So…how much Benjamin’s are we talking here?’ although she was dying to know. She had been working hard at the diner and stashing away as much money as she could for the day that her and Max could leave Arcadia but any cash the Caulfield’s wanted to send their way would definitely help. 

. . . . . 

Chloe was driving Max back to her Mom’s place for the night. They had moved out all her belongings from her dorm after Max’s final exam as there was no point in hanging around there anymore and she had been staying there since. It was working well but Chloe was still desperate for when they could get their own place.

“So…the cheque?” Chloe asked.

“Yeah?” Max said with a smirk.

“Come on Max don’t hold out on me.”

“It’s for me to know and you to…”

“Maaaax.”

“Nah, I don’t think I’m gonna tell you.”

“Stop teasing me and just tell me woman!”

“I thought you liked my teasing?” Max said as she moved her hand further up Chloe’s thigh and squeezed.

“Oh no you’re not getting out of this one with your moves! Tell me!”

“Never!” 

“We have ways of making you talk Caulfield.”

“Oh really, I’d like to see you try.”

Chloe swerved the car into a lay by at the side of the road and pounced on Max, pulling her into a deep kiss and pressing her tongue firmly into her girlfriends mouth. She felt Max’s hand entangle in the back of her hair and her other hand snaked up the front of Chloe’s shirt. Chloe moaned as she felt Max’s hand move towards her bra and run her fingernails lightly across her nipple, she’d had it pierced a few months back and that meant she was extra sensitive there and it seemed like Max had a gravitational pull towards it now whenever they made out. 

“Fuck Max,” Chloe breathed out, “I want you so fucking bad right now.” 

Max moaned in response and lifted up her dress, she grabbed Chloe’s wrist and moved her hand between her legs. Chloe gasped when she felt how wet her girlfriend was and started rubbing her fingers against the wet patch whilst Max moaned and gasped into her mouth. Chloe had almost forgot what had started this make out session and then a passing car honked their horn at their display and they broke apart. 

They jumped apart, breathing heavily and then started laughing. When they returned their breathing to normal Max said, “Five grand.”

“Huh?”

“The cheque.” Max said and a huge excited grin spread across her face. “Five grand Chloe.”

Chloe’s eyes grew so wide that she felt like her eyeballs might fall out of their sockets, “Are you fucking kidding me?!” she screamed as she threw herself on top of Max. “Oh my god Max do you know what this means? It means we are getting out of this hell hole so fucking soon.”

I know Max said, she had some tears streaming down her face and Chloe looked concerned, “Hey you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m more than okay, I am so frigging happy Chlo.”

Chloe leaned in and gave her girlfriend a loving kiss. When they broke apart they rested their foreheads together and stared into each others eyes, “I love you so much.” Chloe said and then started up the car to drive home.

“Fuck, five grand.” Chloe said shaking her head, “Also…damn I’ve got some mad interrogation skills. Second base and you’re giving away all your secrets Maximus.”

Max shoved Chloe playfully, “Shut up and drive, dork!”

. . . . . 

Five Months Later

 

Max awoke on her 22nd birthday and rolled over to spoon her girlfriend…but she wasn’t there. Max frowned as she patted the empty space next to her, “Chlooooee.” she mumbled and opened her eyes. In Chloe’s usual spot there was a letter. Max sprung up in bed, confused, sleepy and a little pissed that she wasn’t being serenaded with birthday song by her lover and at the very least being given some breakfast in bed. She opened the letter, the envelope was covered in little hearts that Chloe had doodled. The contents read: 

‘Dearest, loveliest, hottest Max,

Happy Birthday beautiful, don’t be too grouchy that I’m not there but I have a surprise for you and it’s totally worth it. Promise. Are you up for a treasure hunt for old times sake pirate? ;) ‘

Max turned laughed at the winky face ‘Does she know that technically counts as an emoji?’ she turned the letter over and saw a treasure map drawn out around their apartment. Each spot in the map was numbered and there was a big gold star indicating her final destination would be the living room. Spot one was right under her bed. 

Max giggled and climbed under the bed, raking around the other boxes looking for her treasure. She loved that Chloe could think of something fun like this to do that would make Max feel young and carefree. Her life was never short of joy since Chloe had been back in it. She finally found a wrapped box and pulled it out. Inside there were tons of old photos, love letters, postcards and drawings from when Max and Chloe had been kids right up until the present day. Max had seen some of this stuff before when they had moved into their apartment but was still shocked to see how much Chloe had kept. ‘Man some of this stuff is so old now. I love that she kept all of this.’ 

Max wanted to study every item in the box but she was also desperate to get to the end of this treasure hunt and get the final booty which she hoped would be Chloe’s booty. She picked up the box and carried it to the next spot which was in the hallway between the bedroom and the kitchen and Max saw her next gift in the middle of the floor with a sign attached that read ‘DO NOT STEP ON ME’ ‘Yeah Chloe, that would totally stop me accidentally stepping on it’ Max laughed as she pulled the tag off and ripped the paper.

Max gasped when she saw a Nikon DSLR inside complete with some additional lenses and filters. It must have cost a small fortune. Max still loved analogue, but her new job meant that she would have to invest in a DSLR and she had been saving for this particular camera. ‘I can’t believe she did this.’ “Chloe!” Max called out, assuming the girl was somewhere in the apartment, “This is too much!” she got no response and frowned, continuing her treasure hunt.

The next destination was the kitchen. Finding treasure number three was a lot more difficult as there were a lot more places for Chloe to hide it. Max was getting frustrated and just wanted to see her girlfriend already. She looked up to the top of the refrigerator and saw the corner of some gift wrap. ‘Ah hah! She used my greatest weakness against me…my height.’ Max grabbed some tongs from beside the cooker and fished the small parcel off the top of the refrigerator, catching it in her free hand. Thankfully it was light and didn’t feel breakable.

Max ripped open the paper and was confused to see Chloe’s navy beanie inside. “Huh?” she said out loud. Not that she didn’t like the beanie, it was just a strange gift to receive. Shrugging she pulled it onto her head and made her way to the living room with her other treasure in her arms. 

When she entered the living room she nearly dropped both boxes as she saw candles around the room and dozens of red roses. In the centre of the room, Chloe was standing, grinning broadly. Max put her boxes on the coffee table and wrapped her arms around her girlfriend, “Chloe, what is all this? I mean I know it’s my birthday but you didn’t have to do all this.” 

“Well uh…” Chloe stuttered nervously, “The gifts are kind of a theme to like your final gift. I mean, I figured you’d need these…well…hopefully, if all this goes as I planned.”

Max looked back confused, “What? All…what?”

“Well…you got something old.” Chloe started, pointing at the box of memories, “Something new.” Chloe gestured at the camera, “Borrowed.” Chloe said and pulled the beanie back away from Max’s eyes slightly.

Max’s eyes widened, “And something…” she started and watched as Chloe moved down on one knee, “Blue.” she said as she stared at the girls bright hair and then at the open ring box in her hands. “Oh my god. Chloe!”

“Max, I cant imagine a day where I don’t get to be with you, I don’t want to ever imagine one. You make me so happy, I am so proud of you and everything you do and achieve. All I want to do is be the best person I can for you and I will, every day I’ll do the best I can, for you. So you wanna like…get married and shit? Okay that didn’t sound so romantic…okay…Max Caulfield…will you marry me?”

“Are you kidding me?!” Max blurted out and Chloe winced but then Max pounced on top of her, knocking her to the ground, “Of course I’ll marry you.” Max was smothering Chloe’s face in kisses. Chloe felt her face ache as she beamed with joy and felt tears roll down her face. 

“Really?” she said, sitting up.

“Duh!…even though you’re super cheesy.” Max jibed.

“You just bring it out in me.” Chloe took the ring and placed it on Max’s finger. Max stared at it in awe, “Chloe it’s beautiful, are you sure we can affo…”

“Hey, we can okay don’t worry about it. With your new fancy pants job and me not working for minimum wage in a shitty diner anymore, we can afford it.”

Max pulled Chloe into a hug and began a kiss attack on her face again, “Okay okay down girl.” Chloe said, “Plus you have total bed breath.”

“Way to kill the mood.” Max joked. “But since you have now. I have a really important question for you too Chloe.”

Chloe looked concerned for a second.

“Where’s my birthday breakfast woman?” Max asked, trying to stifle the grin.

“Oh so this is how it’s gonna be, I’m just the little woman in the kitchen serving your every whim? Fine fine, I’ll go make you your birthday breakfast princess.”

Max grinned and sat on the sofa while Chloe moved to the kitchen, “Thanks baby.” she said, inspecting the ring on her finger and moving her hand around in different angles to look at it.

“Anything for you Mrs.Price.” Chloe said shutting the door to the kitchen behind her. 

“Mrs.Caulfield!” she heard Max shout.

“Yeah we’ll see about that.” Chloe chuckled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's a wrap! I hope you enjoyed the fluffiness of this chapter, I thought I would keep it light for the end. I'm working on another fic just now which I want to make significantly longer and more of a build up in it than this was. Please check it out if you can. Thank you so much for all the feedback and kudos, it really has meant so much to me and I am taking all your feedback on board for future works. Much love.


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